New Delhi: On 16 October 1964, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) detonated its first atomic bomb at Lop Nur in Xinjiang, under the secretive codename Project 596. The test catapulted Beijing into the global nuclear club, reshaping Asian geopolitics. But beneath the narrative of “catching up with the superpowers,” the human and environmental costs were borne by Xinjiang’s Uyghur and Kazakh populations, who became silent victims of a programme that militarised their homeland. The event remains a paradox: a moment of national triumph for Beijing, yet a story of displacement, radioactive fallout, and enduring coercion imposed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Communist Party’s instrument of power projection.

PROJECT 596: A MILITARY FIRST, NOT A CIVILIAN ACHIEVEMENT China’s atomic

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