No. They rely on ours. More importantly they rely on our will because without the will, all of our weapons are worthless. Just as important as our will is, “do the Chinese believe we have the will to fight China to save Taiwan?” It is important we persuade the Chinese that we do, if we are to insure they don’t even try. That’s difficult for a president to do if his base is believed to be as pacifistic as say, Ron Paul fans. The pacifist at any price crowd unwittingly makes aggression more, not less likely, because they’re always loudly proclaiming they have no will. It’s also difficult for a president to be persuasive if his Naval officers are insubordinate and go out of their way to display weakness and if it looks like there’s a nearly 4 year ongoing coup attempt undermining his authority.
Thanks.
Yes Taiwan does have nukes, and no they do not rely on ours.
Taiwan was in fact test detonating her nuclear arsenal at sea in 1982 and 1983 and it rattled the communists on the mainland. The communists began building up in Fujian province.
I was stationed on Okinawa at the time so all of this was right next door and within our theater of operation. The SR71s out of Kadena Airbase flew mission after mission. So much so that there came to be concerns that they weren’t getting enough maintenance time.
Eventually at the request of pretty much everybody Reagan held talks with Taiwan, and the explosions stopped.
Nobody who was in Asia or the Pacific at the time believes Taiwan just decided to give up their arsenal and they trust a succession of American administrations for their protection. Reagan gave them proven designs that didn’t need testing.
Taiwan and Communist China stand at detente.