History
CSIST was established by the Republic of China government in 1969 to serve as a military R&D and systems integration center Early work includes various missile and radar systems, as well as systems integration for ROC military aircraft and ships.
The institute was involved in attempts nuclear weapons programs during the Cold War. In 1967, a nuclear weapons program began under the auspices of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER) of CIST. After the International Atomic Energy Agency found evidence of the ROC's efforts to produce weapons-grade plutonium, Taipei agreed in September 1976 under U.S. pressure to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Though the nuclear reactor was soon shut down and the plutonium mostly returned to the U.S., a secret program was revealed when Colonel Chang, Hsien-yi, deputy director of nuclear research at INER, defected to the U.S. in December 1987 and produced a cache of incriminating documents.Presently there is no claim any nuclear weapons program is being pursued.
The Institute expanded to the development of dual use technology in 1994. With the expansion of Taiwan's civilian space program, CSIST has also become involved in design of various satellite and launch systems, the latter of which have consisted primarily of scientific rockets to study the ionosphere.
Read more about this topic: Chungshan Institute Of Science And Technology
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)