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# America demands explanations from China over low-yield nuclear tests
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/amerikanskie-ofitsialnye-litsa-v-khode-zakrytykh-diplomaticheskikh-peregovorov-trebuiut-ot-kitaia-obiasnenii-po-povodu-predpolagaemykh-iadernykh-ispytanii-maloi-moshchnosti-i-bystrogo-r/
- Published: 2026-09-27T07:11:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:25:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: The East, Society, Geography, Science, New York

In closed diplomatic talks, American officials are demanding explanations from China over alleged low-yield nuclear tests and the rapid expansion of its strategic infrastructure at no fewer than seven secret sites. The talks took place on the margins of multilateral meetings in Geneva, New York and Casablanca, against the background of preparations for the summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

The American side speaks of possible violations of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the Lop Nur test site in north-western China. The treaty prohibits any nuclear explosions, but has not yet entered into force, since several key states, the United States and China among them, have not ratified it. In February 2026 the United States formally accused China of having secretly conducted a nuclear test with an energy yield in June 2020\. According to the American version, China used so-called underground "decoupling". This is the term specialists give to detonating a charge inside a large underground cavity, which dampens the seismic waves and prevents instruments from registering the explosion. The United States made the accusation at the Conference on Disarmament, soon after the expiry of the New START treaty, which had limited the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia.

Satellite images, according to the author, show a large-scale modernisation of Chinese facilities. The modernisation has affected the production of plutonium warhead cores at Pingtong, explosive testing at Zitong, nuclear fuel reprocessing at Jiuquan, Jinta and Guangyuan, and a considerable expansion of the laser fusion research centre at Mianyang. The Mianyang complex, like the American National Ignition Facility at the Livermore laboratory, makes it possible to model thermonuclear processes without actual underground explosions. The rules currently in force permit such laser experiments. The Chinese arsenal has already exceeded 600 warheads, and by 2035 it may reach 1,500\. Trump has warned that the United States may resume nuclear testing "on an equal basis" if the violations continue. China denies conducting explosive tests and denies an arms race, adheres to the principle of no first use of nuclear weapons, and refuses formal limitations, citing the enormous gap between its own arsenal and those of the United States and Russia.

The American accusations meet with serious technical scepticism. Philipp Rombach of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs noted in an August report that the seismic event of magnitude 2.75 at Lop Nur in June 2020 produced a wave pattern characteristic of a detonation in a cavity. However, the International Monitoring System created by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization reliably confirms only explosions with a yield of over 500 and 1,000 tonnes of TNT equivalent. The United States does not disclose the data from its sensors, in order to protect intelligence methods, and so independent observers cannot tell an ultra-low-yield nuclear explosion from permitted hydrodynamic experiments or industrial blasts.

Chinese and American experts assess Washington's strategy differently. Tianjiao Jiang, in an article for the American Arms Control Association, writes that the United States seeks to draw China into three-way talks together with Russia. In his view, the American approach is mistaken, because it does not acknowledge the mutual vulnerability of the parties, ignores the vast difference in the size of the arsenals, and combines demands for arms control with the expansion of missile defence under the "Golden Dome" programme. Tong Zhao, in a report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, points out that American doctrine pushes both powers towards the classic security dilemma. Political scientists give the name security dilemma to a situation in which one state's measures to strengthen its own security are perceived by another state as a threat and provoke a counter-build-up of forces