Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test

Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test Update: Despite the Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing has made it known it is not best pleased with Washington digging up Nuke blasts from the past. Issuing a statement via state mouthpiece (@HuXijin_GT), the CCP suggested an ulterior motive for the timing of this announcement: "Trump is eager to resume nuclear testing and needs a plausible reason, and accusing China of conducting nuclear tests is the perfect pretext. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw stated on Tuesday that the US is prepared to conduct low-yield nuclear tests in response to alleged secret nuclear tests by China and Russia. The US is being far too hasty; having just fabricated rumors that China conducted an explosive nuclear test nearly six years ago, they are already announcing their own low-yield nuclear test. Washington's motives for spreading these rumors are too clear; they can't even be bothered to feign it." Hard to disagree with the latter point. *  *  * As Kimberley Hayek detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, a senior State Department official released additional evidence Tuesday in support of U.S. allegations that China conducted an underground nuclear test in June 2020, as global arms control frameworks unravel. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw, while speaking to a Hudson Institute meeting, discussed data from a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan that recorded a magnitude 2.75 “explosion” approximately 450 miles from China’s Lop Nur test grounds on June 22, 2020. “I’ve looked at additional data since then. There is very little possibility I would say that it is anything but an explosion, a singular explosion,” Yeaw said, underscoring that the data were not consistent with blasts from mining. “It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” said Yeaw, a former intelligence analyst and defense official who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering. “It is ... what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.” Yeaw argued that China tried to hide the event through decoupling, detonating the device in a spacious underground cavity to diminish seismic waves. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno earlier this month accused China of performing such secretive nuclear arms tests and implementing measures to restrict seismic evidence. “Today, I can reveal that the U.S. Government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” DiNanno said. These claims back up Yeaw’s assertions of concealment tactics. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors global explosions, noted that available data do not allow for firm conclusions. Executive Secretary Robert Floyd said in a statement that the seismic monitoring station in Kazakhstan captured “two very small seismic events” 12 seconds apart on June 22, 2020. The organization’s network detects events equivalent to 551 tons (500 metric tons) of TNT or more, according to Floyd. “These two events were far below that level,” Floyd said. “As a result, with this data alone, it is not possible to assess the cause of these events with confidence.” China, a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty but not a ratifier, rejected the initial U.S. accusation at an international conference this month. Beijing’s last acknowledged underground test occurred in 1996. The United States, which also signed but did not ratify the treaty, is legally bound to its terms under international norms. America’s final underground test was in 1992, with subsequent reliance on sophisticated simulations and supercomputers for warhead maintenance. President Donald Trump recently called on China to take part in trilateral talks with Russia to support the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which ended Feb. 5. China refused the invitation, arguing that its arsenal is far smaller than those of the United States and Russia. The Pentagon estimates China’s current operational warheads at more than 600. The stockpile is expected to exceed 1,000 by 2030. The Federation of American Scientists, an organization working to minimize the risks of nuclear threats, tracks Russia as currently having 5,459 warheads, while the United States has 5,177. The New START accord expiration removes caps on deployed strategic warheads and delivery vehicles, potentially accelerating buildups. Russia and the United States said they would informally observe limits. Tyler Durden Thu, 02/19/2026 - 04:15

By Tyler Durden