In 1964, the People's Republic of China concluded its first nuclear weapons test, meaning they had successfully detonated a nuclear bomb.
The event served as the final nail in the coffin of the KMT's ambition to reconquer the Mainland militarily. The aim of Taiwan ceased to be to serve as a holdout; now it needed to outperform Mainland China economically.
An abrupt spike can be seen in the emphasis the KMT administration placed on science and technology immediately after the event, but labor-intensive manufacturing remained the engine of Taiwan's economic development.
