China's violations of nuclear agreements have lawmakers leery of giving blanket approval to extending the 1985 nuclear cooperation agreement between China and the U.S., set to be renewed at the end of this year.
Senators from both parties are expressing serious concerns about whether China is providing nuclear technology to Pakistan and whether China may be reverse-engineering reactor cooling pumps acquired from Westinghouse for use in its expanding fleet of nuclear submarines,
the Free Beacon reports.
The Obama administration, already at odds with Congress over its nuclear deal with Iran, has stated it intends to renew the nuclear agreement with China, but members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are saying, "Not so fast."
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said, "We have a country like China that is not honoring the spirit of the law. They’re not honoring previous agreements with the nuclear group. We know they’re going to take this information and use it for military purposes. We know that, even though the agreement says they won’t do it," the Free Beacon reports.
China has five nuclear-powered attack submarines and four missile submarines, and is planning to build four more attack submarines and five more missile submarines, the Free Beacon reports.
The Westinghouse pumps, if reverse-engineered to be small enough to fit into China's nuclear submarines, are quieter and would make those submarines much harder to detect,
Business Insider reports.
Westinghouse Electric has agreements to sell AP1000 nuclear reactors to China and hopes to sell a total of 30 such reactors under the terms of the 1985 agreement, Business Insider notes.
After a closed-door, classified committee meeting with administration officials, in a public hearing, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., grilled Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security, asking, "Concerns have been raised that China may be diverting U.S. nuclear power technology to its nuclear naval program. Would such a transfer violate the peaceful use provisions of the 1985 Nuclear Cooperation Agreement?"
Countryman confirmed that it would.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said, "While progress has been made, China’s nonproliferation policies remain problematic. Multiple State Department reports document Chinese companies and individuals who continue to export dual-use goods relevant to nuclear and chemical weapons and ballistic missile programs in Iran and North Korea," the Free Beacon reported.
Corker said, "We are just beginning what will be a robust review process. These agreements can be valuable tools for furthering U.S. interests, but they must support, not undermine, our nation's critical nonproliferation objectives," Business Insider noted.
A senior administration official told Business Insider that if Congress blocks the agreement's renewal, "that would allow another country with lower levels of proliferation controls to step in and fill that void. We go into it with eyes wide open. Without it, we would be less able to press the Chinese to do better on this front."
Cardin said, "As China makes plans to export nuclear reactors, reactors based upon U.S. technology, to other countries, one has to wonder about its commitment to nonproliferation standards it has signed up to."
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