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Uranium sales to China just too risky

By Jim Green - posted Tuesday, 28 February 2006


China has limited domestic uranium resources. Madame Fu Ying, China's ambassador to Australia, told a Melbourne Mining Club luncheon in December that China has insufficient uranium for both its civil and military nuclear programs. As the Taipei Times editorialised: "Whether or not Aussie uranium goes directly into Chinese warheads - or whether it is used in power stations in lieu of uranium that goes into Chinese warheads - makes little difference. Canberra is about to do a deal with a regime with a record of flouting international conventions ..."

Washington certainly regards China's nuclear program with concern. The US Nuclear Posture Review, leaked in 2002, refers to China's "ongoing modernization of its nuclear and non nuclear forces" and envisages nuclear attacks on China in the event of a confrontation over Taiwan.

Last year, Zhu Chenghu, a general in the People's Liberation Army, said:

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If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition onto the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons. We, Chinese, will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all the cities east of Xian. Of course, the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.

The Chinese Communist regime also has a worrying record of military exports. In 2001, the CIA reported that China had provided missile-related items to North Korea and Libya as well as "extensive support" to Pakistan's nuclear program. In 2003, the US government imposed trade bans on five Chinese firms for selling weapons technology to Iran.

Human rights violations

What would happen to a whistleblower publicly raising concerns about diversion of Australian uranium from nuclear power to China's WMD program? Most likely the same fate as befell Sun Xiaodi, who was concerned about environmental contamination at a uranium mine in northwest China. The non-government group Human Rights in China reports that Sun Xiaodi was sacked and harassed. In April 2005, immediately after speaking to a foreign journalist, he was abducted by state authorities and has not been heard from since.

The persecution of Sun Xiaodi is par for the course. According to Amnesty International, the Chinese Communist regime is responsible for five out of every six executions carried out around the world. At least 2,468 executions were carried out in 2001 alone. On April 11, 2001, 89 people were executed in a single day to kick-start a “law and order” campaign and 1,781 people were executed in the following three months.

The statistics mask the human cost of the regime's mass persecution. Sun Xiaodi's daughter writes in an open appeal for her father's release: "As a daughter, I love my father very much; I miss him and think of him constantly. I urgently appeal to all concerned to unconditionally release my father, and I condemn these terrorist activities. Give me back my father, and give him back his freedom."

Madame Fu Ying said at the Melbourne Mining Club luncheon in December that Australia needed to prove it was a "reliable" uranium supplier and that unspecified "other factors" ought not interrupt supply. Perhaps she had the regime's human rights record in mind.

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Beijing's record of media censorship is equally deplorable. According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 27 journalists were being held in prison at the start of last year, making China the world's largest prison for journalists. Of the 167 countries surveyed by Reporters Without Borders, China ranked 159th for press freedom.

Uranium sales to China would set a poor precedent. Will we now sell uranium to all repressive, secretive, military states, or just some, or just China?

Clearly we couldn't rely on whistleblowers or the Chinese media to inform us of any diversion of Australian uranium for nuclear weapons. We would be completely reliant on the inspection system of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the provisions of the bilateral safeguards agreement under negotiation.

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About the Author

Dr Jim Green is the editor of the Nuclear Monitor newsletter and the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia.

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