China Rejects US Allegations of Nuclear Testing

China committed to moratorium on testing

Wednesday’s allegations out of the US State Department that China may have violated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty with low-yield tests are being rejected by Chinese officials, who say that they remain committed to the treaty and a moratorium on tests.

Chinese officials said the whole US statement was a “complete distortion of the facts,” and that they had no need to conduct nuclear tests, since they’d already gotten all the data needed in tests in the 1980s and 1990s.

China’s refutation is very non-specific, because the US allegations did not offer any direct incident claims, nor any evidence of any wrongdoing by the Chinese. Chinese officials say new nuclear research is strictly focused on civilian use, and there appears to be no reason to doubt that, given the facts available.

US allegations of CTBT violations, without evidence, are nothing new, as in 2019 the US similarly claimed Russia was “probably” violating the CTBT, and again offered no evidence.This is widely believed to be an untrue charge, despite the US occasionally repeating it.

Why the US keeps making allegations without evidence on the CTBT is not clear, as these are very important allegations about a vital treaty, and even the accusations are dangerous and potentially costly, moreso if they are plainly false.

With the large nuclear powers, the US in particular, developing new low-yield weapons, some research does continue, though this research is being done via computer simulation, or in sub-critical experiments which are not covered by the CTBT and are considered “zero yield.”

Since the world has large monitoring arrays to detect underground nuclear explosions, it would be virtually impossible for any nation to conduct such tests in secret without being immediately found out. This further makes evidence-free claims tests may have happened particularly improbable.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.