How did China Get Nukes?

China became the fifth country to go nuclear when it detonated its first atomic bomb in 1964. But here’s the wild part: China wasn’t fully industrialized, was isolated on the world stage, and its economy was barely hanging on.

So, how did they pull this off? How did they manage to build a nuclear weapons program?

Let’s rewind to the 1950s. China had just come out of a brutal civil war, which followed the devastation of World War II. Mao’s communists came out on top, and Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated government retreated to Taiwan.

By the mid-50s, tensions between mainland China and Taiwan were heating up, and the U.S. decided to get involved. For Mao, this was a wake-up call—getting nukes was the best way to avoid another humiliating showdown.

Luckily for Mao, he had a nuclear buddy