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Updated December 2005
Nuclear Chronology
1970-1979
1970
China completes construction of its plutonium reprocessing facility in Jiuquan.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 112.
14 October 1970
China conducts its eleventh nuclear test. The three-megaton thermonuclear bomb is dropped by an H-6 bomber.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 244; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
18 November 1971
China conducts its twelfth nuclear test. The fission bomb is tower-mounted and possibly contains plutonium. The blast is equivalent to about 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
7 January 1972
China conducts its thirteenth nuclear test. The fission bomb possibly contains plutonium and is dropped by a Q-5 bomber. The yield is equivalent to less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
18 March 1972
China conducts its fourteenth nuclear test. The bomb contains plutonium and is possibly a trigger device for a thermonuclear bomb. The bomb is dropped by an H-6 bomber and the blast is equivalent to between 100 kilotons and 200 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
27 June 1973
China conducts its fifteenth nuclear test. The thermonuclear bomb is dropped by H-6 bomber and yield is greater than two megatons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
21 August 1973
China signs Protocol Number 2 to the Treaty of Tlatelolco for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
— Mingquan Zhu, "The Evolution of China's Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy," Nonproliferation Review, Winter 1997, p. 43.
April 1974
China agrees to provide training for North Korean nuclear scientists and engineers. During a visit to Beijing, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung asks for Zhou Enlai's assistance to establish a North Korean nuclear program. Kim also asks Chinese leaders to place North Korea under a Chinese nuclear umbrella.
— Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., "North Korea's Nuclear Programme," Jane's Intelligence Review, Vol. 3, No. 9, September 1991, p. 408.
17 June 1974
China conducts its sixteenth nuclear test. The atmospheric test of this thermonuclear bomb yields a blast of between 200 kilotons and one megaton of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
27 October 1975
China conducts its seventeenth nuclear test. The underground test of a fission device yields less than 10 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
23 January 1976
China conducts its eighteenth nuclear test. The atmospheric test of this fission device yields less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
26 September 1976
China conducts its nineteenth nuclear test. The fission is successful but the fusion partially fails. The bomb is tested in the atmosphere and yields 200 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
17 October 1976
China conducts its twentieth nuclear test. The fission bomb is tested underground and yields a blast of between 10 kilotons and 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
17 November 1976
China conducts its 21st nuclear test. The thermonuclear bomb is dropped by an H-6 bomber and yields about four megatons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
17 September 1977
China conducts its 22nd nuclear test. The atmospheric test yields a blast of less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
15 March 1978
China conducts its 23rd nuclear test. The fission bomb is tested in the atmosphere and yields blast that is equivalent to less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
14 October 1978
China conducts its 24th nuclear test. The underground test of this fission device yields an explosion of less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
14 December 1978
China conducts its 25th nuclear test. The atmospheric of this fission device yields a blast of less than 20 kilotons of TNT.
— John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 245; Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
14 February 1979
Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping tells Indian journalists, "We stand for destroying all nuclear weapons completely. However, the nuclear powers have no right to prevent non-nuclear countries from possessing nuclear weapons unless these powers commit themselves to destroy their nuclear weapons completely or guarantee not to be the first to use them."
— "Vice-premier Deng Xiaoping on Sino-Indian Relations," Xinhua General Overseas News Service, 14 February 1979; in Lexis-Nexis, <http://www.lexis-nexis.com>.
April 1979
At the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC), China proposes a "Comprehensive Program for Disarmament," stating, "when substantial progress has been made in the destruction of the [US-Soviet] nuclear weapons...other nuclear states shall join them in negotiation for the total destruction of nuclear weapons."
— J. Mohan Malik, "China's Policy towards Nuclear Arms Control in The Post-Cold War Era," Contemporary Security Policy, August 1995, p. 5.
13 September 1979
China conducts its 26th nuclear test.
— Xiaoping Yang, Robert North and Carl Romney, "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3): CMR Technical Report CMR-00/16," August 2000, <http://www.rdss.info/database/nucex/report/explosion.pdf>; US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Monitoring Research Program "Nuclear Explosion Database," <http://www.rdss.info/index_ie.html>.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008
by MIIS.
