Chang Hsien-yi

Chang Hsien-yi
Born1943 (1943)
Haikou City, Hainan Province
EducationNational Tsing Hua University
SpouseHung Mei-feng
ChildrenThree
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear Physics

Chang Hsien-yi (Chinese: 張憲義; born 1943) served as deputy director of Taiwan's Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) before defecting to the United States of America in 1988. Recruited by the CIA, he exposed the secret nuclear program of Taiwan to the United States and was consequently placed under witness protection. Chang's information led President Ronald Reagan to insist that Taiwan shut down its nuclear weapons program.[1]

Early life

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Chang was born in 1943 in Haikou City, Hainan, with Taiwanese parents.[2] He went to Taichung Second National High School, and attended National Tsing Hua University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree.

Recruitment by the CIA

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In 1967, Chang graduated from the military's Chung Cheng Institute of Technology (now National Defense University). Then from the 1970s, he was recruited by a case officer of the CIA while studying in America.[3] While rising through the ranks in Taiwan, he passed on information to the USA. By 1987, as Deputy Director of INER, he was well-positioned to provide information about the country's secret small-scale plutonium extraction facility. At this time, beside the continuing policy by President Chiang government, Reagan administration considered it possible that the secret program was proceeding without the knowledge of Vice President Lee Teng-hui.[4]

Defection to the United States of America

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External image
image icon Declassified historical ROC Army nuclear strike plan covers Xiamen City & international Port of Economy Zone, population: 1.06 million

After the case of Lieyu massacre revealed in May throughout the procecution in October 1987,[5][6] Colonel Chang did not return to Taiwan from the holiday on 9 January 1988, and instead tell his family to leave for Japan in 8 January, one day before his departure to the United States under protection.[7] Chang brought with him numerous top-secret documents[3] that could not have been obtained by other means,[4] though an article from the BBC claims Chang did not take a single document.[8] A study into the secret program concluded that at the time of Chang's defection, Taiwan was one or two years away from being able to complete a nuclear bomb.[9] According to The Economist, there were plans to fit nuclear warheads to Taiwan's Tien Ma, or 'Sky Horse' missile, which had an estimated range of up to 1,000 kilometres.[10] There were also plans to load miniaturised nuclear weapons into the auxiliary fuel tanks of the Indigenous Defense Fighter.[11] Armed with Chang's documents, President Reagan insisted that Taiwan shut down its program.[12]

After the testimony in a classified hearing in parliament, Colonel Chang was put in a witness protection program. A ROC military agent stationed in US used Chang's child data to found out his registry to an elementary school in Washington, D.C., then successfully traced the kid to locate his home. The agent knew Chang's family being under the witness program, therefore secretly contacted a journalist to knock on their house door for interview without notification, which shocked the family. They were moved away overnight, and US authority dispelled the agent to return to Taiwan.[13]

Taiwan's Ministry of Defence denied that Chang had been a CIA informant. Its retired Chief of General Staff (1981-1989), General Hau Pei-tsun, claimed that for more than a decade previously, Taiwan already had the potential to develop nuclear weapons.[14] A former member of President Lee Teng-hui's national security team, Chang Jung-feng, has described Chang's actions as a 'betrayal'.[15] The CIA has refused to discuss Chang's defection.[16] James R. Lilley, who served as CIA station chief in Beijing, said the case should be 'publicly acknowledged as a success'.[9]

Chang is quoted in The Taipei Times as saying that he was "...motivated by fears that his research into nuclear weapons would be used by 'politically ambitious' people who would harm Taiwan."[15]

Nuclear energy in Taiwan

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Taiwan uses nuclear power for some of its electricity generation, but since 1988, its official position has been that it will not develop nuclear weapons.[3] Were it to do so, China has said it would be 'a legitimate reason' to launch an attack on the island.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Andrea. "Taiwan's Former Nuclear Weapons Program: Nuclear Weapons On-Demand | Institute for Science and International Security". isis-online.org. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  2. ^ 陳儀深 (21 Dec 2016). 核彈！間諜？CIA: 張憲義訪問紀錄. 台北: 遠足文化. ISBN 9789869392129. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Muthiah Alagappa (2009). The Long Shadow: Nuclear Weapons and Security in 21st Century Asia. NUS Press. pp. 415–. ISBN 978-9971-69-478-4.
  4. ^ a b Richelson, Jeffrey (17 September 2007). Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea. Washington, D.C., United States: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 367–368. ISBN 978-0-393-32982-7. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  5. ^ Guan Ren-jian (1 September 2011). 你不知道的台灣：國軍故事 [The Taiwan you don't know: Stories of ROC Arm Forces] (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taipei: Puomo Digital Publishing. ISBN 9789576636493.
  6. ^ Zheng Jing; Cheng Nan-jung; Ye Hsiang-zhi; Hsu Man-ching (13 June 1987). 三七事件 相關報導 [Related reports on the March 7 Incident] (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Vol. 175–176. Taipei: Freedom Era Weekly. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  7. ^ Lu, Li-bin (7 January 2017). "「叛逃」赴美隔天蔣經國「氣死」？ 核武科學家張憲義不認為" [Chiang Ching-kuo "died in anger" soon after Chang's defection to the United States? The nuclear weapon scientist does not think so] (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taipei. Up media Newspaper. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  8. ^ Sui, Cindy (2017-05-18). "The man who helped prevent a nuclear crisis". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  9. ^ a b By TIM WEINERDEC. 20, 1997 (1997-12-20). "How a Spy Left Taiwan in the Cold - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-02-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. (January 1998). "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Science and Public Affairs. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.: 60–. ISSN 0096-3402.
  11. ^ "Defector reveals mini-nuke project against China - Taipei Times". 8 January 2017.
  12. ^ "The Nuclear Vault: The United States and Taiwan's Nuclear Program, 1976-1980".
  13. ^ Xu Shao-xuan (2005-01-17). "We quickly grasped Chang's whereabouts after defection". Liberty Times.
  14. ^ Etel Solingen (9 February 2009). Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East. Princeton University Press. pp. 102–. ISBN 978-1-4008-2802-9.
  15. ^ a b "Chang Hsien-yi's defection 'a betrayal'". Taipei Times. 2017-02-03. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  16. ^ "U.s. Spy Defused Taiwan's Nuclear Dreams - tribunedigital-chicagotribune". Articles.chicagotribune.com. 1997-12-21. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  17. ^ I. C. Smith; Nigel West (4 May 2012). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-0-8108-7370-4.
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