A Personal Perspective of U.S.-China Nuclear Science and Security Cooperation

July 16, 2026
Siegfried S. Hecker

This article presents a historic narrative of U.S.-China cooperation in nuclear safety following China’s political opening within the early Seventies. It represents the angle of Siegfried Hecker who has a few years of expertise within the U.S. nuclear weapons advanced and has traveled extensively to the world’s different nuclear powers. Hecker’s insights are derived from shut collaboration along with his counterparts in China’s nuclear weapons advanced. He has seen China emerge from the backwaters of nuclear science and know-how to a near-peer in nuclear weapons and world class in most nuclear applied sciences.