US official says seismic station in Kazakhstan detected explosion at Lop Nor test site; Beijing denies
China carried out a secret nuclear test in June 2020, the United States Assistant Secretary of State said on Tuesday (17.Feb.2026). The statement was made during andwind at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
According to the American official, a seismic station in Kazakhstan detected a “explosion” magnitude 2.75 at the Lop Nor proving ground in western China on June 22, 2020.
“I’ve analyzed additional data since then. There’s very little possibility, I would say, that this is anything other than an explosion, a singular explosion.”Yeaw said. “It is also completely inconsistent with an earthquake”he stated, adding that the registration “this is what you would expect from a nuclear explosive test”.
The PS23 seismic station, located in Kazakhstan and part of the global monitoring system of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, recorded the event about 725 km away.
Robert Floyd, executive secretary of CTBTO, reported that the station recorded “2 very small seismic events” with 12 seconds interval on the mentioned date. The organization’s monitoring system can detect “events” consistent with nuclear explosions with yields starting at 551 tons of TNT. “These 2 events were well below this level. As a result, with this data alone, it is not possible to assess the cause of these events with confidence”Floyd said.
China, which signed but did not ratify the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, carried out its last officially documented nuclear test that same year. The Asian country denied the North American statements.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, called the statement “totally unfounded” and an attempt “to make excuses to resume” American nuclear tests. “This is a political manipulation designed to seek nuclear hegemony and evade its own nuclear disarmament responsibilities”said Liu. “China urges the US to reaffirm the commitment of the 5 nuclear-armed states to refrain from nuclear testing, uphold the global consensus against nuclear testing, and take concrete measures to safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime.”added the Chinese representative.
The statement was made at a time of concerns about nuclear arms control, especially after the end of the treaty on February 5, 2026. This agreement was the last strategic nuclear arms limitation pact between the US and Russia.
According to Pentagon data cited by Christopher Yeaw, China currently has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads. Projections indicate that this number will exceed 1,000 by 2030. The United States conducted its last underground nuclear test in 1992. Since then, the country has used advanced computer simulations to verify its warheads.
