Taiwan was well on its way to making its own nuclear weapons in 1978, until the defection of Dr. Chang Hsien-yi to the US. At the time, the US was against Taiwan developing nuclear weapons because it was seeking the normalization of relations with the PRC, which happened one year later under Carter.

War is actually good for the redistribution of wealth, and nothing is better at wealth redistribution than nuclear war, because everyone has to build up again from nothing. I don't think it can be kicked down the road much longer, because the US government has become aware of the fundamental nature of the CCP, which is aggressively nationalistic. For the US, there is a growing realization it is a much greater threat than al-Qaeda ever was.