US threatens to resume nuclear testing: 'China has already done it, in 2020'

A senior Trump administration official has released new details supporting the allegation that China conducted an underground nuclear explosion during Donald Trump's first presidency: a controversial allegation that, however, has become a catalyst for his push to recover such tests by the United States. The Washington Post writes that.

"We will not remain at an intolerable disadvantage, said Christopher Yeaw, who heads the State Department's Bureau of Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, during a debate at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank. The executive urged Beijing to "tell the truth" about its nuclear weapons tests, which some US officials and experts say are part of a determined Chinese effort to catch up with, if not surpass, the US global lead in nuclear weapons technology.

The event in question occurred on 22 June 2020, "right near" a classified facility known as Lop Nur, in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, Yeaw told participants in the discussion. The US, he added, used seismic data recorded from a facility in neighbouring Kazakhstan to conclude that China had conducted an explosive nuclear test. The activity - measured at a magnitude of 2.76 - was not consistent with an earthquake nor with explosions used in mining, Yeaw said. The power of the suspected explosion - that is, the amount of energy released - remains unclear due to Chinese government efforts to conceal the test.