China Firmly Denies Allegations of Conducting Nuclear Testing

ISLAMABAD: China has strongly denied the US allegations that it had conducted nuclear tests during the past few years.

Chinese officials said that US claims about Chinese nuclear tests were outright lies and in turn accused Washington of paving the way for the commencement of trial tests of its own updated nuclear devices.

At the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Friday, Thomas DiNanno, the US under secretary of state for arms control, accused China of conducting the tests, including one on 22 June, 2020, and of preparing for more tests with massive yields.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry told French wire service, AFP, “The US allegations are completely groundless and are outright lies. China firmly opposes the US attempt to fabricate excuses for its own restarting of nuclear tests,”.

It also urged the US to “immediately stop its irresponsible actions”. US President Donald Trump said in October that Washington would start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Moscow and Beijing, but without elaborating or explaining what kind of nuclear testing he wanted to resume.
“DiNanno’s comments came as he was presenting a new US plan calling for three-way talks with Russia and China to set new limits on nuclear weapons, after the expiration of New START — the last treaty between top nuclear powers Washington and Moscow, which expired last Thursday” reads a story released by AFP.

In the post-Cold War era, the nuclear weapons receded into the background and their political values also dwindled in international politics. The political and military value of nuclear weapons was largely restricted to economically and socially backward regions like South Asia, where Pakistani and Indian nuclear testing in late 1990s brought nuclear weapons back into regional security calculations.

During the past few years, reports started emerging that indicated that Washington might embark on a program to modernize and upgrade its nuclear arsenal, a potential development that could trigger chain reaction throughout the world–For instance American resumed nuclear testing could force China to embark on a modernization of nuclear weapons program of its own.

This in turn will push India on a modernization program of its own and obviously Pakistan would not wait a moment to embark on the commencement of a modernization program in its territory.

There were reports that President Trump had issued instructions to the U.S. Department of War to resume testing “immediately”. Experts warned that this would threaten the end of a 30-year global moratorium. Experts warn this could trigger a “tit-for-tat” cycle where Russia, China, and North Korea also resume explosive tests to validate new weapon designs.

Following the expiration of New START on February 5, 2026, there are no longer any binding limits on the number of deployed strategic warheads between the U.S. and Russia. The U.S. is pushing for a new trilateral treaty including China, but Beijing has so far rejected joining.

South Asia would be the worst affected region of the world in case American ambitions lead to the end of a world wide nuclear moratorium. Pakistan and India had fought a war in May of last year and the military tensions between the two countries have not subsided yet. The resumption of nuclear testing in South Asia will give rise to further political and military tensions between two nuclear rivals.

The west’s moral argument it employs in preventing Iran from going nuclear would be further weakened in the process. The pressure on the Iranian regime from within the Iranian ruling circles would increase substantially in case the American Department of War resumes nuclear testing under instructions of President Trump.

This would clearly be a bad omen for the security of the world.