Just the same, Americans need to resist the urge to react out of anger or fear of the Chinese. We can't just hope the Chinese won't be able to afford a nuclear upgrade. A more certain way to maintain the current favorable balance of power would be for the U.S. Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and then have the world community press China, which already has signed the CTBT, to ratify it as well. With China as a CTBT club member, a new strategic arms race could be kept in check. The Chinese can't develop improved warheads without test explosions to give them confidence the devices work.
China has only two dozen sophisticated nuclear weapons compared to thousands in the U.S. arsenal.
It is hard to believe China's weapons development is on par with this nation's. But to negate the theft of U.S. nuclear secrets and prevent China from testing new weapons, the Senate should ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. That already-signed treaty, held up for more than a year in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, establishes an international monitoring and verification procedure to deter nuclear testing. The secrets are stolen, the technology transferred to China and there is blame aplenty to go around. Now halt testing.