Premier dismisses nuclear allegations

By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Oct 20, 2007, Page 1

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, left, and Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu yesterday answer questions in the legislature. In response to allegations by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi, they said Taiwan is a peace-loving country that will never produce, develop or obtain nuclear weapons.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday dismissed allegations by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government was developing nuclear weapons to confront China's military threat and as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the US.

Chang made the rebuttal on the legislative floor during a question-and-answer session with Su.

Su said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had told the Ministry of National Defense (MND)-affiliated Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology to develop a nuclear weapon.

He also said that nuclear experts and a former national defense minister from a country equipped with nuclear weapons had been invited to discuss the issue.

Besides developing a nuclear weapon, Su said Chen was also pushing for the mass production of the locally developed Hsiung Feng II-E cruise missile.

political asylum

Su also said that Chen would seek political asylum in the US to protect himself from possible imprisonment over his role in the special allowance case when his presidential term comes to an end next year.

"With the development of the Hsiung Feng II-E and nuclear weapons, we are becoming another North Korea," said Su, a senior KMT member of the legislature's National Defense Committee.

Su said that he had obtained the information from a DPP Central Executive Committee member but he did not name the individual, nor did he provide proof to back his claims.

Dismissing Su's allegation, Chang insisted that the country had no plan to develop a nuclear weapon.

"This is a serious accusation. As the premier, I assured you that Taiwan is a democratic country with no plans or intention to develop nuclear weapons," the premier said.

"Taiwan will not produce, develop, acquire or use nuclear weapons," he said.

Su also said that the MND had plans to produce 245 Hsiung Feng II-E missiles and had requested NT$34.6 billion (US$1.06 billion) over eight years from the classified portion of the ministry's budget.

Earlier this week the ministry sought NT$3.8 billion for the missile project for next year, but lawmakers cut the budget by one-third, froze another one-third and passed the remainder.

range

The missiles are believed to have a range of between 600km and 1,000km, putting Hong Kong and Shanghai within their range, depending upon the type of engine used.

"The real problem, however, is not the nuclear weapon or the missiles," Su said.

"The real problem is that we have an abnormal president. He is going to use those weapons for his own interests," he said.

Minister of National Defense Lee Tien-yu (李天羽) said that the Hsiung Feng II-E is still in the development stage.

Lee said that the missiles are being developed for defensive purposes, rather than with any intention of starting a war.

Also see: Editorial: China and the KMT tipping point

Being the corner of the Earth first and ever hit by nuclear weapons successfully, it is interesting to see how popular such development has become in the smaller countries of East and South-East Asia. I'm sure that it looks like hope to many who, until then, could not have considered ever besting the monsters of their world, like China; or even the newest powerful entity, across the Pacific, who first revealed to them the weapon of the gods.

No one should be able to build nukes but us because we are the only responsible and competent people in the world. Everyone else would mess up. Anyone else engineering nukes should be nuked. That's just my humble opinion though, not trying to come on too strong.

It not like we haven't made mistakes before...
70 punished in accidental B-52 flight - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

America shouldn't exclusivly have nuclear weapons on the basis that we are the most responsible. Just like there could be a nut wanting to use nuclear weapons in another country, there could be a nut that wants to use them in the United States.

Now whether Taiwan should acquire nuclear weapons or not I would have to go with not. It isn't because we have a greater sense of responsiblity or the moral high ground. If Taiwan built a nuclear arsenal China could and would percieve it as a legitmate threat and use it as a cataylist to launch a strike on Taiwan. In general it would be a bad move by the Taiwanese government.

I am personally opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in countries around the world. At the same time I can logically make the following statement.

It is the responsibility of the government of a nation to do whatever it needs to do to ensure the sovereignty of the nations. If faced with the possible attack or invasion by another country then the government is responsible for taking action to prevent that from happening or to defend the nation should it happen.

If Taiwan is threatened by a nuclear power, such as mainland China, then the government of Taiwan has an obligation to the People to defend against such an attack or invasion. Mainland China is a nuclear power so it is reasonable to say that in order to counteract a possible nuclear attack Taiwan would be justified in secretly developing a nuclear weapon to defend their sovereignty.

The same criteria applies to countries such as N. Korea and Iran. So long as they are being threatened by a nation with nuclear weapons their governments have a responsibility to the People to counteract the threat. The threat justifies development of nuclear weapons to counteract a nuclear weapon threat. We, the United States, did this during the Cold War with the USSR to the most extreme levels.

So, if we want to stop nuclear weapon proliferation then the first action is to stop nuclear weapons nations from threatening non-nuclear weapon countries. Its really that simple.

However it isn't that simple. Tawian isn't a internationally recongnized soverign state; even the United States is mixed in reconginizing it as a soverign state. Thats not to mention that China views Tawian as part of itself and if Taiwan acquires nuclear capability it could view is as revolutionary group acquiring nuclear weapons and use military action to halt said acquisition. It would be like if Puerto Rico gained nuclear weapons outside Federal control.

Taiwan has been independently governed since the late 1940's and any political rhetoric is irrelevant to the actual facts. Taiwan is an independent nation whether governments recognize it or not. Remember, during the 1950's and 1960's Taiwan was recognized as an independent country by the United States and it still is recognized as an independent nation by other nations. It is not recognized as such by the US, China, or the United Nations but other countries do recognize its sovereignty.

Puerto Rico is under US government control but it does point out the hypocracy of the position that Taiwan is not an independent nation. If, as claimed, Taiwan is a part of China then this is not a story or an issue at all. China already has nuclear weapons so if Taiwan builds them they are covered by China's nuclear umbrella. You cannot accuse a nation of developing something it already has.

I only used Puerto Rico as a simple comparison of a nation that is technically under US control gaining nuclear ablity. However, in your argument you point out that the US recongnized Taiwan as a independent state in the 50s and 60s but not now and the UN doesn't recongnize it either which for most intents and purposes means it isn't a independent state.

If we use your basis that Taiwan is recongnized by other states then we should recongize Alaska as a independent state too because Iran says that it is.

Besides this is moving away from the origninal issue of Taiwan gaining nuclear ablity and the consequences that could come about from such a move. Whether the rest of the world recognizes Taiwan as a independent state is irrelivent in the fact that China could and probably would take military action against Taiwan.

In 1950s and 1960s, Taiwan was recognized as an independent country, that is "Republic of China", which covers all mainland China and Outer Mongolia with its capital in Nanjing. After 1970s, international community recognize "People's Republic of China" as the only legitimate government in China. Most countries consider Taiwan island as part of P.R. China, just like Hainan island. USA also consider Taiwan island as part of China, but is ambiguous on which China it is referring to.

As for "Taiwan" or "Republic of Taiwan", it has never been recognized as an independent country in modern era. Now, there are still 24 countries in the world who recongize "Republic of China" as the legitimate government in the whole China. Can you find these countries in the map?

As for the nukes, Taiwan island only needs 4 H bombs to sink the island. You need a nuclear arsenal equivalent to that of USA and USSR to sink mainland China. China is much more capable of nuclear survival during a nuclear war with any country except USA and Russia, not to mention Taiwan.