US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — China on Thursday accused the US State Department of suspicions of small-scale nuclear tests allegedly carried out in secret by Beijing, the latest diplomatic tension in China, as “baseless” date between the two world powers.
“China has always adopted a responsible attitude, honestly fulfilling its international obligations and the international commitments it has made,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
“The American criticism of China is completely baseless, unjustified and does not deserve to be refuted,” he added during the daily press briefing in Beijing.
In a report released Wednesday, the US State Department expressed concern over China’s activities at its 2019 Lop Nur nuclear test site which it believes feared a potential breach of commitments made by Beijing.
This report, which points, among other things, to “major excavation work” at Lop Nur and China’s “lack of transparency” on its nuclear testing activities, does not provide any evidence on the holding of a test at low yield.
Also according to this report, the content of which was first revealed by the Wall Street Journal, China has also blocked the transmission of data from sensors.
Contacted by the WSJ, a spokesperson for the Comprehensive Nuclear Ban Treaty (CTBT) assured that there had been no interruption in the data transmissions of the five Chinese stations since the end of August 2019.
The United States and China are both signatories to the CTBT adopted in 1996 and which prohibits any nuclear explosion worldwide, but neither of the two countries, unlike France, Germany or Russia, does ratified.
Last year, the American military intelligence agency accused Russia of “probably not” respecting the moratorium on nuclear tests, that is to say its commitments under the CTBT, suspicions which do not have so far not been confirmed.
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