In January 1988, one of Taiwan’s most senior nuclear engineers defected to the United States after passing crucial intelligence on a top-secret program that would alter the course of Taiwan’s history.
"Colonel Chang Hsien-yi was a leading figure in Taiwan’s nuclear weapons project, a closely guarded secret between the 1960s and ‘80s, as Taipei raced to develop its first nuclear bomb to keep pace with China.
"He was also a CIA informant.
"Chang exposed Taiwan’s secret nuclear program to the United States, its closest ally, passing intelligence that ultimately led the US to pressure Taiwan into shutting down the program – which proliferation experts say was near completion."
Our government's desire to stop the spread of nuclear weapons made perfect sense, especially because Taiwan was still far from a functioning democracy at the time. Unlike Chang, I think a nuclear armed Taiwan would be a deterrent to PRC invasion. The possibility of invasion leading to even a small nuclear weapon on Three Gorges dam would be a powerful deterrent. It would be suicidal for Taiwsn to do that, buy this is in the nature of MAD: neither side wants to do something that might provoke such an action.
I suspect that whatever our suppression of their effort caused, they have probably returned to where they were. As someone I know described Japan's nuclear weapons capability relative to the same problem: a screwdrivers's turn away.
"Taiwan was still far from a functioning democracy at the time..."
ReplyDeleteNot as far as one might think. The "national" government was electorally paralyzed, due to the conflict between the RoC's position as government of all China, and control of 99% of China by the PRC. However, elections for local government offices were vigorously contested, and non-KMT candidates often won. (This had been true even in the early 1950s.)