ABSTRACT
Taiwan has been a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1970, but it is recognized diplomatically by only a couple of dozen countries in the world, not all of which are themselves parties to the NPT. The flow of media speculation may well include rumours of possible nuclear co-operation between Taiwan and states like Israel, South Africa or South Korea—rumours which will be inherently impossible to prove or disprove. The important point about the situation on Taiwan is that things could be far worse, since some major ways of shortening the route to nuclear weapons have been closed off or at least made impracticable for the present. The Republic of China regime on Taiwan is relatively closed and difficult to penetrate. No public discussion has been allowed of the possibility of nuclear weapon programmes, and the press has been discouraged from covering the subject.
