China has reportedly been conducting roughly five times more tests simulating nuclear explosions in recent years than the US, which recently announced a modernization program for its nuclear arsenal.

The Hill has published an article reporting that China has been speeding up its development of a new generation of nuclear armaments.

According to reports by the China Academy of Engineering Physics, cited by the media, China carried out some 200 nuclear blast simulations between September 2014 and December 2017, while the US conducted only 50 such tests between 2012 and 2017 (according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California).

READ MORE: New US Nuclear Policy Unlikely to Trigger Arms Race With China

The outlet recalled that the White House recently decided to invest some $1.2 trillion into upgrading the US nuclear arsenal and developing new armaments, such as so-called low-yield nuclear weapons, which are allegedly aimed at deterring Russia and China.

Chinese authorities, however, have yet to comment on the media report.

Beijing has been possessing weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons since 1964, with its first hydrogen bomb test taking place in 1967. The country joined the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984 and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997.