China on Monday forcefully denied U.S. President Donald Trump’s accusation that it has been secretly resuming underground nuclear weapons tests. The dispute comes as Trump orders a resumption of the U.S. testing regime, breaking with decades of restraint.
In a press statement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning rejected Trump’s claims outright, declaring that China has “abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.” She reiterated that China adheres to a no-first-use nuclear policy and maintains its posture solely for self‐defense.
“As a responsible nuclear-weapon state, China is committed to peaceful development … and adheres to its nuclear testing moratorium,” Mao said. She urged the U.S. to uphold the moratorium and safeguard the global nuclear nonproliferation regime.
The Ministry also called on Washington to refrain from actions that would destabilize strategic balance and global stability.
Trump, in a televised interview, accused China, Russia, North Korea, and Pakistan of conducting clandestine underground tests, though he presented no supporting evidence. He added: “I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test.”
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The United States has not conducted a nuclear detonation since 1992. Other nuclear powers publicly say they have not either: China’s last known test took place in 1996. Meanwhile, Russia recently unveiled tests of a nuclear‐powered cruise missile and an underwater drone, but stopped short of claiming full warhead detonations.
In a surprising move, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had directed the Pentagon to restart nuclear weapon tests “on an equal basis.”
The nature of the proposed U.S. testing remains murky. When asked whether he meant underground explosive testing, Trump said: “We’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
But U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright later clarified that current plans do not involve nuclear explosions. Instead, he said, they are “system tests” or “non-critical explosions,” evaluations of the weapon’s components, not full detonations.
Since the partial test bans of the Cold War era, an informal moratorium on explosive nuclear testing has held, no country except North Korea has conducted a full nuclear detonation in decades.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was opened for signature in 1996 to ban all nuclear explosions, but key states, including the U.S., China, and Russia—have not ratified it.
Resuming overt testing, even component or subcritical tests, could spark diplomatic backlash and unsettle arms control treaties.