Nuclear Weapons/Warheads: China

The People's Republic of China detonated its first atomic device on Oct. 16, 1964, but has been on a slow pace in developing and acquiring nuclear weapons since then.

China's first test bomb, the 596, was a pure-fission U-235 implosion device. When it was tested at the Lop Nur Test Site, it was typical of other first tests, yielding 22 kilotons.

It took less than three years before China detonated its first hydrogen bomb in a full scale-radiation implosion test at Lop Nur on June...