Taking a dip at Nanwan beach, with Taiwan's Tai Power No. 3 nuclear power station looming above. Photo: Reuters
Kyle Mizokami, National Interest: China's Greatest Nightmare: Taiwan Armed with Nuclear Weapons
It would have been one of the greatest crises of postwar Asia: the revelation of a Taiwanese atomic bomb. For Taiwan, the bomb would have evened the odds against a numerically superior foe. For China, a bomb would have been casus belli, justification for an attack on the island country it considered a rogue province. Active from the 1960s to the 1980s, Taipei’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons were finally abandoned due to diplomatic pressure by its most important ally, the United States.
Taiwan’s nuclear program goes back to 1964, when the People’s Republic of China tested its first nuclear device. The test was not exactly a surprise to outside observers, but it was still Taiwan’s nightmare come true. Chinese and Taiwanese air and naval forces occasionally skirmished, and it threatened to turn into all-out war. Suddenly Taipei was confronted with the possibility that such a war could turn nuclear. Even just one nuclear device detonated on an island the size of Maryland would have devastating consequences for the civilian population.
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WNU Editor: Not going to happen .... ignoring the military escalation and its ramifications .... the economic sanctions that would be imposed would be more than enough to devastate Taiwan's export oriented economy.
3 comments:
Taiwan is like Canada ,Japan, any high Tech non Nuclear countries, they could put together Nuke in pretty short order. But in reality any country with a nuclear power plant, has give any non nuclear adversary a target that would cause more damage than any pussy nuclear weapon, Fukushima and Chernobyl shows us what a melt down looks like, imagine Taiwan targeting all China's Nuclear Power Plants,or Poland targeting Russia's or Mexico the USA's, these countries would be destroyed by their bigger opponent, but they would also be destroyed as well, best not to play.
I think you are underestimating the difficulty of developing nuclear weapons AND reliable delivery methods.
You maybe right to a degree Alex it would be difficult but not impossible for the high Tech Nations, but as far as attacking an other nations Nuclear Power Plant, you don't need Nukes to do that, knock out the cooling system and you have a melt down, any nation with Nuclear Power Plants is extremely vulnerable.The Nuclear Power Plant is an Achilles Heel for all the Nations that have them, and the ultimate dirty bomb. Just look at the amount of damage, territory, infrastructure etc, the meltdowns at Fukushima and Chernobyl did and who knows how many people got and will get cancer because of them.
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