U.S. Says China Conducted Zero-Yield Nuclear Tests

U.S. Says China Conducted Zero-Yield Nuclear Tests

The United States says that China may have secretly conducted low-level underground nuclear tests, even though the country has signed a treaty banning such tests. 

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the charge, made by the State Department, may exacerbate already tense relations between the two countries. 

The United States is concerned about China’s potential breaches of the “zero yield” standard for nuclear test occurred several times during 2019 at China’s Lop Nur nuclear test site, the State Department was quoted to say in the Journal’s report. 

Zero yield tests are nuclear test in which there is no explosive chain reaction of the type ignited by the detonation of a nuclear warhead.