never heard of it, but it could be true. who knows? :\
Not that it matters. The possibility is itself enough. Like China’s going to call Taiwan’s bluff.
I thought PRC had an transparent and open nuclear program. What bluff?
Where are we going to store the nuclear waste from this program…In the rebars used for the concrete homes in ROC.
My guess is they could cobble something together very quickly. Probably have the components ready.
Also Taiwan doesn’t need a fissionable nuclear bomb. It however has vast amounts of radioactive material sitting around and four nuclear reactors.
Some things are just too obvious but not very good to state without ratcheting up tensions.
Just a rumor. Just like some people who believe Israel has nukes 
Having nukes would assume that Taiwan is an advanced country, like India and Pakistan, for example… 
This article appeared in The Age today. Although I can’t see that the fact that Taiwan experimented with plutonium in the 1980s necessarily means that they are working to develop nuclear weapons now. Having the ingredients to build a bomb and building a bomb are not the same thing. That said, who knows what they are up to. I am sure these things are well shrouded in secrecy.
I had a girlfriend (a waishengren) who was employed at the C-h-u-n-g S-h-a-n Institute when Col. Chang H.s.i.e.n-yi defected to the US. She claimed he was a CIA agent. The US forced the Taiwanese to shutdown the program. This was big news in Taiwan at the time. As I recall, Chang had graduated from the University of Tennessee.
For a history of Taiwan’s nuclear weapons program:
bullatomsci.org/issues/1998/ … right.html
PLEASE TURN OFF THE FUCKING PINYINIZER!!! :fume:
I don’t think Taiwan could have a secret nuclear program or some bomb hidden away without the US knowing about it … and they (nor Japan) would tolerate a nuclear arms build-up and possible showdown with the PRC. From what I’ve read/heard, the program was effectively shut down during the CCK days. I’ve heard far more credible reports, however, that Taiwan does have a chemical weapons program. What would the international reaction be to that if the Taiwanese used chemical weapons to try and stop a PRC attack?
The only way Taiwan could get a nuke would be to buy one from Ukraine.
It would probably be cheaper anyway, since most of the facilities for processing have been converted or dismantled. Maybe the Ukraine has some missiles they could sell us too. 
If Taiwan had a nuclear bomb they wouldn’t be hiding it, they’d be parading it down Chung Hsiao East Road with a couple of cute babes riding the pointy bit.
That’s what they’re for. Umm that’s both the nuclear bombs and the cute babes.
unless they are using the ambiguity as a deterrent… as long as mixed messages are being sent out it gives China and the rest of the world food for thought…
Remember the story of the SA airplane that crashed over the Indian Ocean that had departed Taiwan and how the captain had intially refised to fly the plane cause of the cargo… and the theory on how they were carrying “something” ( some have said a nuke )
If Taiwan has a nuke is it plausible that the USA may say nothing… what good would it do to rat Taiwan out other than to make the situation more tense and more ammunition for China to justify a preemptive strike against Taiwan?
If Taiwan were ever to launch it, is it guaranteed that the USA would not come to Taiwan’s aid and Taiwan know this?
One nuke can only be used once… causing limited damage… but would not the gloves be off resulting in a massive backlash ( neutron bombs/nukes) from China?
The logic of the arms race was having more nukes and launch sites than the other guy, and targeting their launch sites before they can get their nukes in the air. A nuke or a couple of nukes would not be enough for Taiwan in this situation to take out China’s launch sites.
Therefore are Taiwan’s nukes ( if they have them) just a deterent to stop China from ever using nukes/neutron bombs on Taiwan ( eventhough using weapons like these would destroy Taiwan which China is trying to ‘liberate’); and does this in some way provide better security for Taiwan?
And there is always the possibility they could have bought one from somewhere, and hide it somewhere in Taiwan. As good as the relationship is with the USA, I think there are things that the Taiwanese don’t tell the USA and vice versa
The only suggestion I have about using WMD as a bluff is Iraq. Saddam used the rumors of WMD as a bluff against Iran and USA. Even his own military believed his bluff. But when the USA called him on the bluff…well we know the results.
If PRC calls us on our bluff of “nukes,” it will be a pretty short pre-emtive war indeed on Taiwan.
Fuck as if! WHO IS GONNA GIVE TAIWAN THE MATERIAL TO MAKE A NUKE, NOBODY WITH THE GOODS IS THAT STOOPID! China had to steal the secret and they are a super power. Now you expect us to believe that this little country that can not even manage to elect a president without nationwide riots is going to be trusted to hang on to a nuke and stay cool.
Plewwwwwwwwp!
Please.
Why is Taiwan a ‘pissant little country’? Maybe that makes China a giant splattering of shit. Are they really a superpower? They can’t even retake a pissant little country. The only country they can defeat in a war is Tibet -a buddhist nation armed with stones. As for getting the nukes -Taiwan is making them domestically. Nuclear power plant #4. They’re processing uranium in there. I hear the bomb will be be launched from either Gueshan Dow or Xiao Liu Qui. Taiwan is #1.
I just don’t see it, this region is way to unstable.
“I hear the bomb will be be launched from either Gueshan Dow or Xiao Liu Qui. Taiwan is #1.”
That is exactly the kind of mentality I am referring to. Nobody wants to see zealots with that thought process capable of pushing the button.
Is China a super-power? Yes I think they are they have enough clout to get the world to ignore human rights violations in order to do business with them; If that is not an example of super power on the world stage I am not sure what is.
Finally, why is Taiwan a piss-ant little country, cuz they have the little man syndrome; living next to the Dragon. I live here and I love this place, but I find it hard to take some guy seriously, not you, who is pontificating about democracy and patriotism when he is willing to fight someone else for supporting a different political ideology and who is dumping garbage on the street while he rants.
If you are a patriot you love your country, flaws and all, you do not dump waste into the street or behind your house in the hills. If you support the democratic system you support free speech; the essence of which is supporting the others guys right to say what you hate to hear.
My 2 cents.
you could just go ahead and write this one off as an urban legend.
back when i lived in taiwan i worked down the east coast with an ABC guy. he was born in taiwan, grew up in the states and back in taiwan living after college stateside and having done his military time in taiwan as a flyboy.
we would have some good chats about stuff. one day he told me that his father, the scientist, had been a key player in the development of weapons such as this thread discusses years ago. he told me of the day the “AIT” came to his parent’s house and searched for stuff. yeah, he could have been BSing me but then maybe not.
he didn’t act like it was a secret or promise me to secrecy. he opined such was common knowledge to people who wanted to know about such. taiwan had a nuclear weapon and the US took it away.
do they have another/others? i know i would if i were a taiwanese loving patriot capable of such feats.
I don’t seriously mean that about the missiles being launched from the islands. However ‘pissant little country’ has a bad ring to it. I think I speak for more than a few in Taiwan when I say that China can kiss my ass!
I know this is a really really old thread, but I just found some interesting facts about the matter and would like to share.
Taiwan definitely had an nuclear weapon program from the 1960s to the late 1980s. Hau Pei-tsun revealed in his own memoir (八年參謀總長日記) that the KMT government and military conducted at least 2 small scale nuclear testing near Jiu-peng-wan (九鵬灣) in Pingdong during the 80s. The blasts were captured by US spy satellites and together with Dr. Zhang’s defection to the CIA brought down Taiwan’s nuclear program.
Hau stated that by 1986, Taiwan had the capability of building a nuclear weapon in a very short amount of time. By then Taiwan had the capability to enrich plutonium from the uranium supplied by the US for non-military purposes.
After PRC successfully detonated their first nuclear weapon in 1964, Chiang Baldie was very nervous and vowed to have nuclear weapons of his own. The nuclear engineering department of NTHU (est. 1964) and National Ch’ung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (est. 1969) were both established for this purpose.
In the 70s, Taiwan first employed the help from Ernst David Bergmann of Israel to help with Taiwan’s nuclear program. After repeated US interference, the program became much more secretive. The CIA arranged for Dr. Zhang Hsien-Yi. the head of the nuclear weapon program at Ch’ung-Shan to defect. The news got to Chiang Jr. on January 12, 1988, and Junior died the very next day. The Americans then negotiated with LTH to ensure the dismantlement of the nuclear weapon program.
When the Americans sent people to retrieve nuclear materials from research facilities in Longtan, Taoyuan, several fuel rods were poorly protected and caused at least 6 hydrogen explosions in an unshielded facility. The resulted nuclear contamination were subsequently flushed into Dahan river, and created large areas of “Environmental Reservations”.
Since the government continues to pretend none of this ever happened, the effects of nuclear contamination in Taoyuan is never monitored or evaluated, and the health risks to residents and visitors of that rather scenic part of Taoyuan is also neglected.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_an … ite_note-5
By the way, since under US supervision, Taiwan didn’t posse any long range warhead delivery system such as long range bombers or missiles, there was no way for Taiwan to put nuclear warheads to use, even if a nuclear warhead was developed. The general plan for the warhead was that in case of a PRC takeover of the island, the military would detonate the bomb here in Taiwan, so that PRC would instead get an atomic waste island.
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