China fires back after Trump accuses it of secret nuclear testing, says 'always adhered to the path of peaceful development'

China on Monday (Nov 3) denied testing nuclear weapons after US President Donald Trump alleged that the country was among those to have conducted secret tests away from the public eye. In a statement, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, “China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, pursued a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, upheld a self-defence nuclear strategy and abided by its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.”

Also read | ‘They test underground where no one knows’: Trump accuses Russia, China of secret nuclear testing

What did Trump say about China?

Earlier, Trump, during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, the US president claimed that Russia and China were secretly conducting underground nuclear tests. He said this while defending his surprise decision to resume nuclear testing in the US after more than three decades. He claimed that while the United States has been holding back, other nations have been carrying out nuclear testing. "Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don’t talk about it."

He alleged that "They test way under-- underground where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test," he alleged. The comments came days after Trump ordered the US military to prepare for new nuclear weapons tests, the first since 1992. He argued that the move was necessary to ensure America’s arsenal remains reliable and to match what he described as covert testing by rival powers.