They are in the same club as countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, etc. - highly developed nations that are fully capable of developing nuclear weapons, but chose not to (or were forced not to).
I think if they started working towards it, China would feel forced to step up their reunification efforts. If a nuclear deterrent is going to be a viable path back to a stable status quo, it will have to be a fait accompli with external help.
I could imagine a return to what Taiwan had until the early '70s, American tactical nuclear bombs stored on the island, in a similar nuclear sharing arrangement like several European nations that don’t have nuclear weapons of their own, but train pilots to drop them.
Taiwan could develop nukes on their own, if necessary. They had a secret nuclear weapons program until the late 1980s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
They are in the same club as countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, etc. - highly developed nations that are fully capable of developing nuclear weapons, but chose not to (or were forced not to).
I think if they started working towards it, China would feel forced to step up their reunification efforts. If a nuclear deterrent is going to be a viable path back to a stable status quo, it will have to be a fait accompli with external help.
I could imagine a return to what Taiwan had until the early '70s, American tactical nuclear bombs stored on the island, in a similar nuclear sharing arrangement like several European nations that don’t have nuclear weapons of their own, but train pilots to drop them.
It would have to be done very carefully and quickly, so that there is no chance for brinkmanship.