China conducted its first atomic test in October 1964.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by contemporaneous Chinese and US government statements plus consistent historical scholarship on the October 16, 1964 Lop Nur test. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.7 clusters=2 claim_tier=everyday | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- How the United States Lost a Nuclear Device and Recovered an Indian Friend (seed:military_and_intelligence)
- https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2014-10-16/chinas-first-nuclear-test-1964-50th-anniversary (corroboration)
- https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-the-first-chinese-nuclear-device (corroboration)