The United States has accused China of carrying out a covert nuclear test on June 22, 2020, days after the deadly Galwan Valley clashes between Chinese and Indian troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The claim was voiced by US Under Secretary for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno at the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, coinciding with the New START treaty’s expiry between the US and Russia on February 5, 2026.
The US government has cited China’s alleged nuclear test as grounds for refusing to extend the New START treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a one-year extension, but US President Donald Trump dismissed it, insisting on a comprehensive new arms control agreement.
DiNanno disclosed that the US government knows China conducted “nuclear explosive tests, including preparations for blasts with yields reaching hundreds of tons.” He stated, in an X post, that, “I can reveal that the US is aware China has carried out nuclear explosive tests, including readying those with designated yields in the hundreds of tons.”
China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons… China has used decoupling – a method to decrease the effectiveness of seismic monitoring – to hide its activities from the world. China conducted one such…
— Under Secretary of State Thomas G. DiNanno (@UnderSecT) February 6, 2026
DiNanno specifically highlighted a “yield-producing test” on June 22, 2020, accusing Beijing of using “decoupling”, detonating explosives in vast underground cavities to dampen seismic signals and dodge global monitoring.
DiNanno argued that this “decoupling” technique let China hide test violations amid global COVID-19 struggles.
For India, the June 22, 2020, test timing, one week after the June 15 Galwan Valley clash that killed 20 Indian soldiers and unknown Chinese troops in brutal hand-to-hand fighting, raises alarms, amid 2020-21 border standoffs with aggressive patrols and infrastructure along the LAC.
Though US officials avoided direct ties to Galwan, the context looms large for New Delhi. Speaking to defend rejecting Russia’s one-year New START extension, DiNanno called the 2010 pact ‘outdated’, China’s arsenal swells unprecedentedly, Russia’s vast systems evade full caps, and zero Chinese nukes fell under scrutiny.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
