China-Taiwan Nuclear Confrontation

An article on China's spying on US nuke programs, and Taiwan's nuclear weapons program, which was shut down after pressure from the US.

The president's task force committee, known as the Gilpatric Committee after its chairman, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, studied the possibility of recommending launching an air raid on Chinese nuclear weapons facilities as part of a program to check nuclear proliferation.

One of the possibilities, an "air drop of (Taiwan's) sabotage teams," also received "serious consideration."

But two months later, the United States abandoned the plans due to the military risks involved.

Three years later, Taiwan secretly began to develop nuclear weapons, but in 1988, Chang Hsien-yi, deputy head of the Taiwan Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, defected to the United States and provided information

Under pressure from the U.S. government, Taiwan suspended nuclear development, which was at the final stage, nipping in the bud nuclear confrontation between China and Taiwan. Chang turned out to be a spy for the CIA.

[Taiwan] [China] [Asia] [US] [US Foreign Policy]