US, China reportedly discuss reciprocal nuclear-site visits

The United States and China are in preliminary talks on reciprocal nuclear-site visits after China raised the idea earlier this year. The discussions, on the sidelines of P5 meetings and first reported by CNN on Oct. 6, include Energy Department labs, Chinese counterparts, and potentially testing sites. The US has about 5,000 to 5,042 warheads; China about 600 to 620, adding roughly 100 yearly since 2023 and projected near 1,500 by 2035. New START expired Feb. 5, 2026. Trump and Xi discussed trilateral arms talks last month but not site visits; two more meetings are planned this year. On what the talks mean, former acting assistant secretary Paul Dean called reciprocal visits "an extremely valuable confidence-building measure" and urged "eyes wide open." Former State Department intelligence analyst Gerald Brown said China's buildup is "deeply intertwined with political goals, namely its aggressive ambitions toward Taiwan" and that Beijing has used nuclear talks as a "tool to extract political concessions." The Trump administration alleged a covert Chinese test near Lop Nur in June 2020; the NNSA last week ran a 16-ton non-nuclear Nevada blast to test detection of "decoupling." Working-level talks are expected to continue in coming months.