China Goes Nuclear: Fifth Nation Joins Atomic Club
China detonated its first nuclear device, a 22-kiloton uranium-235 bomb code-named '596,' at the Lop Nur test site in Xinjiang province on October 16, 1964. The code name referred to June 1959, the month the Soviet Union withdrew its nuclear assistance from China during the Sino-Soviet split. Beijing had built the bomb without Soviet help, relying on its own scientists and stolen Western intelligence. The test made China the fifth nuclear power after the U.S., USSR, Britain, and France. It happened just two days after Nikita Khrushchev was overthrown in Moscow, meaning the global power structure shifted twice in one week. China tested a thermonuclear weapon just 32 months later, the fastest progression from fission to fusion of any nuclear state.
October 16, 1964
62 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 16
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