New tunnel detected at nuclear test site in China (witness)

 

New tunnel detected at nuclear test site in China (witness)

The US National Public Radio website published a report, in which it talked about satellite monitoring of a tunnel believed to be exploited by China to develop its nuclear arsenal.

In its report, translated by Arabi21, the website said that new leaks suggest that China may expand a nuclear weapons testing complex in the country's western desert.

In this context, Renee Papiers, deputy director of analysis and operations at AllSource Analysis, which monitored the tunnel using satellite imagery, says that "these new facilities are linked to areas that have witnessed nuclear testing activities in the past," stressing that the purpose of using the tunnel currently is not still ambiguous.

China has not conducted large-scale nuclear tests since the 1990s, when it and the world's major nuclear powers entered into a voluntary test ban. But China and other countries, including the United States, have continued to test non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons, sometimes in underground laboratories.

Chinese exile

In an email, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Bingyu, declined to comment on the allegations related to the nuclear test site, stressing that China "remains committed to the moratorium on nuclear tests."

The Chinese official objected to the "unacceptable US allegations" that the Chinese government is trying in any way to undermine the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which is one of the non-signed treaties that contribute to a global ban on nuclear testing.

The news about the new tunnel about the discovery of sites for giant nuclear missiles under construction in other parts of the country came earlier. Over the past year and a half, China has built at least two large facilities, each containing more than 100 silos, says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, who announced the discovery of the first site on July 2. missiles, adding that China had 18 silos in the past.

Chinese nuclear power

"Even with the newly discovered missile silos, the Chinese nuclear force remains much weaker than the American one," Lewis explains. "We were concerned about the construction of more than 200 nuclear silos, which is not an insignificant number... But the United States has more than 400." ".

According to the site, China's efforts to develop its nuclear arsenal represent a departure from international consensus. Over the past decades, while the United States and Russia have stockpiled several thousand nuclear warheads, China has maintained minimal deterrence with a few hundred warheads. In this context, Lewis stresses, "It was never important for China to get involved in the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union."

Is China trying to change the equation?

“When you look at their numbers versus ours, there is a very important difference,” says Robert B. Ashley Jr., the former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, adding that he believes China is now developing its nuclear arsenal as part of a much larger campaign to become a global hegemon.

For his part, Tong Zhao, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, stresses that these developments are evidence that China appears keen to distance itself from that traditional view of nuclear weapons. "The Chinese believe that strengthening the nuclear arsenal will serve China's geopolitical interests, which is the Which will alarm US decision makers."

Zhao believes that all these new nuclear achievements receive support from the highest levels of power in Beijing, stressing that China's nuclear policy is shrouded in a lot of secrecy. It is possible, he said, that the facilities at the test site in Lop Nur will serve China's expansionist purposes.

Zhao says that China may try to reduce the size of its nuclear weapons, so that the missiles can carry more warheads, and a test site in Lop Nur could help it achieve these goals.

It is also possible that the site will be dedicated to preserving the ancient arsenal, but given the relatively small size of the mountains in which the tunnel is located, Lewis speculates that the site will be dedicated to conducting small tests.

nuclear race

Earlier this year, a US State Department report expressed concern that China may conduct small-scale tests using nuclear materials at Lop Nur. Although the tests would not lead to a large-scale explosion, they would contravene the voluntary nuclear treaty that the United States, the United Kingdom and France are bound by, and Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Bingyu denied the allegations, calling them "irresponsible."

According to the site, discovering exactly what is happening at the Lop Nur site is almost impossible without access to the land of the place. The United States and China do not currently have any agreements to limit nuclear weapons; "Because there isn't that kind of dialogue," says Jeffrey Lewis.

Lewis explains that arms control negotiations have yielded little to no results, in part because the United States has failed to take China's concerns about missile defense seriously.

Zhao stresses that the Chinese government has no strong desire to sit at the negotiating table with the United States, and he expects China's nuclear power to continue to grow in the coming period, and "what we are witnessing at present are only the first signs of a frantic nuclear race that will become evident in the coming years.

https://arabi21.com