The Chinese reportedly approved of  North Korea’s nuclear program and now here is another report of Chinese links to Pakistan’s nuclear program as well:

In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to accounts written by the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The Washington Post.

The uranium transfer in five stainless-steel boxes was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that culminated in an exceptional, deliberate act of proliferation by a nuclear power, according to the accounts by Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan.

U.S. officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately confronted the Chinese — who denied it — but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China for it. President Obama, who said in April that “the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons,” plans to discuss nuclear proliferation issues while visiting Beijing on Tuesday.  [Washington Post via Flak for Korea]

Make sure to read the whole article, but it is quite a read.

It is likely that the Chinese proliferated the technology to Pakistan in order to preoccupy the Indians who have fought multiple border wars with the Chinese.  From the Chinese perspective it has worked very well.  Additionally the Pakistanis eventually helped leak nuclear technology to the North Koreans thus creating another nuclear dispute tying up the US with.  Then you throw in suspected links to Pakistan aiding the Iranians with their nuclear program thus further tying up US resources.

I wonder what the Chinese would think if the Taiwanese were given some nuclear technology?