A US State Department report has said China may furtively be undertaking underground, low-level nuclear test explosions. If true, it would be a breach of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international pact that bans such blasts and which China claims to observe.
The report, whose findings were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, offers no proof that Beijing has violated the CTBT, but cites hectic activity at China’s Lop Nur nuclear test site over much of 2019 that had raised American hackles.
The report is bound to worsen tensions between the US and China at a time when Beijing has been in the global glare over its alleged mishandling of the covid-19 outbreak, which has jeopardized the health and economic well-being