The Chinese Nuclear Weapons Program

Eva Lisowski

Nuclear Weapons Education Program, MIT

1950-1954: China Sides with North Korea during the Korean War and Begins its Nuclear Weapons Program in Response to U.S. “Nuclear Blackmail”

1954-1959: The Soviet Union Aids China in the Development of its Nuclear Weapons Program

1960-1980: China Independently Develops and Tests Nuclear Weapons and Missile Technology

1980-1996: China Joins the International Nuclear Weapons Community and Institutes a Moratorium on Nuclear Weapons Testing

1996-Present: China’s Continual Modernization and Expansion of its Nuclear Weapons Capabilities

Sources:

Softschools.com: “Korean War Timeline” https://www.softschools.com/viewTimeline.action?

The Korean War: The Chinese Intervention, U.S. Army pamphlet (CMH Pub 19-8) https://history.army.mil/brochures/kw-chinter/chinter.htm

Nuclear Threat Initiative: “China” https://www.nti.org/learn/countries/china/nuclear/

Nuclear Threat Initiative: “Lanzhou Uranium Enrichment Plant” https://www.nti.org/learn/facilities/724/

Global Nuclear Landscape 2018 by the Defense Intelligence Agency https://www.dia.mil/Military-Power-Publications/

The Nuclear Weapon Archive: China’s Nuclear Weapons http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/China/index.html

Arms Control Association: “Timeline of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)” https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Timeline-of-the-Treaty-on-the-Non-Proliferation-of-Nuclear-Weapons-NPT

Council on Foreign Relations: “‘No First Use’ and Nuclear Weapons” by Ankit Panda https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/no-first-use-and-nuclear-weapons