U.S. set to resume underground nuclear tests

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

The U.S. is preparing to resume underground nuclear tests in response to significant covert Chinese and Russian nuclear testing, a senior State Department official disclosed this week.

Thomas G. DiNanno, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, told Congress that Beijing and Moscow’s nuclear tests created an unacceptable U.S. hindrance and a major advantage for those adversaries in developing nuclear warheads.

The Trump administration also is continuing to press China to join nuclear arms talks that Beijing is required to pursue under an international treaty but has refused, Mr. DiNanno testified Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

On nuclear tests, Mr. DiNanno said President Trump has tasked the Energy and Defense departments to “test on an equal basis to that with our adversaries.”

Mr. DiNanno, the administration’s most senior arms official, said the context for renewed testing is that the Russians and the Chinese have been conducting tests “at yield” — a term describing underground blasts that produce a significant, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction and release measurable amounts of explosive energy.

Other types of testing, including those done by the U.S., are called “subcritical” experiments that mimic nuclear yield tests but below that threshold.

The last underground U.S. nuclear test took place in 1992.

Mr. DiNanno said assessments are being undertaken on resuming the tests but that no decision has yet been made to move ahead.

“I think it’s extremely important to understand that the Russians and Chinese are testing at yield. That creates an intolerable disadvantage for the United States by not testing,” he said.

The under secretary corrected Sen. Jacky Rosen, Nevada Democrat, who said she opposes resumed testing that would be carried out in the desert Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas over fears winds would carry nuclear fallout as far east as Texas.

“Hold on, I want to address it. I think it’s important. You’re talking about the wind. There is no discussion that I’ve been a part of that any atmospheric testing would take place,” Mr. DiNanno said.

Ms. Rosen said nuclear tests are not needed because the reliability of nuclear arms for years has been measured through technical and scientific means short of blasts.

A global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing has been in place since the late 1990s. It is a norm set under the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that China and the U.S. signed but did not ratify. Russia revoked its ratification of the pact in 2023.

China and Russia have denied that yield tests were carried out. China’s last declared underground test took place in 1996, and Russia said its last test took place in 1990.

On China’s reluctance to join U.S. and Russia arms talks, Mr. DiNanno said Beijing, as a signatory of the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, is obligated to engage in disarmament discussions.

“They have refused to do that, so we continue to press them on that,” he said.

Mr. DiNanno said the Trump administration is continuing its modernization of the strategic nuclear arsenal that currently faces an asymmetric threat posed by a combined stockpile of more than 2,500 warheads — 1,500 Russian warheads and a projected 1,000 Chinese warheads — in the coming years. The current U.S. warhead stockpile is about 1,500 deployed warheads, with thousands more in storage.

“We’re going to vigorously compete and modernize our deterrent [and] to try to roll back the Chinese stockpile,” he said.

FCC bans foreign routers over China hacking threat

The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday it is banning the importation of all new foreign-made network routers in a crackdown targeting Chinese-made electronic equipment with the potential to spy on Americans and attack critical infrastructure.

Routers are ubiquitous electronic gear used to connect computers, phones and other smart devices to the internet. China controls an estimated 60% of the U.S. home router market.

The FCC said in a national security determination that routers produced overseas pose a threat.

“Given the criticality of routers to the successful functioning of our nation’s economy and defense, the United States can no longer depend on foreign nations for router manufacturing,” the commission said in a statement. “Compromised routers can enable in-depth network surveillance, data exfiltration, botnet attacks, and unauthorized access to U.S. government or American businesses’ networks.”

According to the FCC, state and nonstate hackers, including those from China, have used router vulnerabilities to “carry out direct attacks against American civilians in their homes.”

Security officials have said the Chinese government-linked hacker group dubbed Salt Typhoon has carried out extensive attacks against U.S. broadband networks and core infrastructure, including routers, that have compromised telecommunications firms.

“From disrupting network connectivity to enabling local networking espionage and intellectual property theft, foreign-produced routers present additional and unacceptable risks to Americans,” the FCC said.

Routers produced abroad were directly linked to China’s Volt, Flax and Salt Typhoon cyberattacks against critical American communications, energy, transportation and water infrastructure, the FCC said.

Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, praised the new order.

“Today’s tremendous decision by the FCC and the Trump administration protects ⁠our country against China’s relentless cyberattacks and makes it clear that these devices should be excluded from our critical infrastructure,” said Mr. Moolenaar, Michigan Republican. “Routers are key to keeping us all connected and we cannot allow Chinese technology to be at the center of that.”

Report: Pro-China tycoon funding U.S. leftists

Shanghai-based tech industry tycoon Neville Roy Singham has spent $278 million on a network of leftist political activists in the U.S., according to a Fox News Digital investigation.

The American-born Marxist businessman sold his technology firm Thoughtworks for an estimated $785 million in 2017 and has since funneled millions to a layered web of shell-like companies, shared boards and interconnected nonprofit groups, the news network said in a report made public Monday.

The funding of activists follows the playbook created by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, who called for using a “united front” strategy to expand Marxism-Leninism around the world.

Beijing continues to invest in influence operations under the Chinese Communist Party organ called the United Front Work Department. Congressional investigators have testified that the department receives an estimated $11 billion in party funding annually.

According to the Fox investigation based on tax records, organizational messaging, online content and historical records, Mr. Singham funnels at least $278 million into a network of about 2,000 nonprofits, think tanks, activist groups and media organizations.

The ultimate objective of the funding is to produce a “shared messaging and ideology matching the communist ideals of Mao and [late Cuban leader Fidel] Castro, operating across borders while appearing independent,” the report said.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said he was not familiar with the funding activities of Mr. Singham. However, Mr. Liu said China welcomes the activity and hopes more Americans view China “in an objective and fair light” and back sound and stable U.S.-China ties.

According to the Fox Digital report, groups linked to the overseas funding range from anti-Israel protests in the U.S. to a propaganda machine in India and the hijacking of a labor union in South Africa.

U.S. groups include CodePink and People’s Forum, which the State Department earlier this month identified as leftist organizations that promote communist Chinese propaganda.

The department said through an unusual public disclosure by a senior official that the two groups “denigrate the United States, whitewash the violence of Marxist regimes, and run cover for narco-terrorists like [former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas] Maduro while enjoying an influx of cash from a donor network with connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Mr. Singham is married to Jodie Evans, a founder of CodePink, whose members are known for disrupting congressional hearings by shouting their opposition to U.S. military activity.

CodePink in recent years has shifted to supporting pro-China activism, including a campaign to promote the idea that China is not a U.S. enemy.

In September, leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially take legal action against “far-left entities organized and funded by Mr. Singham.”

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.