Satellite images would show an undeniable reality. The area of Xinjiang known as Lop Nur, used by Beijing for implementation Nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996, is more active than ever and experts fear that the Chinese have carried out expansion work there in preparation for its resumption Nuclear tests.
“Since announcing the suspension of nuclear tests in 1996, China has kept its promise and committed itself to defending its ban at the international level,” was the Chinese Foreign Ministry's response to the news published by CNN in September, as Beijing, Washington and Moscow followed their activities had strengthened at locations that had been used for their tests in the past nuclear capabilities. In 2020, the Wall Street Journal, based on a US State Department report, claimed that the Dragon Country could secretly carry out “small nuclear explosions” in Xinjiang.
Now it's the New York Times that has sounded the alarm about the Lop Nur structure with new satellite evidence suspicious works conducted on the Chinese website discovered by Renny Babiarz, a former intelligence analyst with ties to the Pentagon and a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Even after leaving his government job, Babiarz continued to study Beijing's nuclear program and analyzed photos that show the remarkable changes that have taken place over time in this vast and remote area of the autonomous region.
Traces of the construction of roads, horizontal tunnels and vertical shafts, the addition or renovation of dozens of buildings. Everything indicates that something unusual is happening. “The Russians and Americans continued to conduct activities at their sites, but nothing like this,” said Siegfried S. Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos weapons laboratory. “All evidence points to apparent preparations for China to resume nuclear testing,” said Tong Zhao, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It was Mao Zedong who wanted to arm the country with nuclear weapons in the 1960s, even though he had defined them “Paper Tiger”. However, after the end of the Cold War, Beijing's interest in the Lop Nur site waned significantly and revived again when Beijing came to power Xi Jinping in 2013, who has since developed a more aggressive foreign policy than his predecessors.
So far, 45 tests have been carried out by the Chinese. A number that pales in comparison to those of other powers. France conducted 210, Russia 715, and the United States 1,030. The 1996 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by 187 countries but never came into force because China, America and other six nations never ratified it. After 1996, only India, Pakistan and North Korea conducted tests Nuclear weapons. In recent months, Moscow has revoked Russia's ratification of the treaty and said it would resume testing only if Washington did so.
Some experts believe China may not be interested in conducting nuclear tests at this point, but also doesn't want to be unprepared in case other countries get ahead of it. Another theory is that Beijing wants to send one warning sign to the West, which wants to counteract its policies towards Taiwan and the South China Sea. Perhaps the tigers the Great Helmsman spoke of are no longer made of paper and could cause real harm.