China-Pakistan nuclear axis defies nonproliferation aims

[Bhai Zakir]

China-Pakistan nuclear axis defies nonproliferation aims


LONDON – The nonproliferation regime is in crisis with North Korea’s defiance and Iran’s continuation of its nuclear program despite opposition from the international community. Yet while a lot of discussion is happening about what can be done about these two states, no one seems willing to take on the elephant in the room: China.

Not only has China played a crucial role in the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, its nuclear engagement with Pakistan potentially remains the most destabilizing factor in the global management of nuclear weapons technology.

Last month Beijing confirmed its plans to sell a new 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor to Pakistan in a deal signed in February. This pact was secretly concluded between the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission during the visit by Pakistani nuclear industry officials to Beijing on Feb. 15-18. This sale will once again violate China’s commitment to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and contravenes China’s promise in 2004 while joining the NSG not to sell additional reactors to Pakistan’s Chashma nuclear facility beyond the two reactors that began operating in 2000 and 2011.

While this issue is likely to come up for discussion at the June meeting of the NSG in Prague, Beijing has already made it clear that nuclear cooperation between China and Pakistan “does not violate relevant principles of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.” This when the CNNC is not merely constructing civilian reactors in Chashm but also developing Pakistan’s nuclear fuel reprocessing capabilities and working to modernize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

At a time when concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear program are causing jitters around the world, China has made its intention clear to go all-out in helping Pakistan’s nuclear development. Yet, with the diplomatic energies focused on Iran and North Korea, there is little discussion about the serious implications of this trend.

China has been bolstering Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities for the past five decades in an attempt to maintain parity between India and Pakistan. Based on their convergent interests vis-a-vis India, China and Pakistan reached a strategic understanding in mid-1950s, a bond that has only strengthened ever since.

Sino-Pakistan ties gained particular momentum in aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian war when the two states signed a boundary agreement recognizing Chinese control over portions of the disputed Kashmir territory. Since then, ties have been so strong that former Chinese President Hu Jintao described the relationship as “higher than mountains and deeper than oceans.”

It was Pakistan that, in the early 1970s, enabled China to cultivate its ties with the West and the United States in particular, becoming the conduit for Henry Kissinger’s landmark secret visit to China in 1971 and has been instrumental in bringing China closer to the larger Muslim world.

Over the years China emerged as Pakistan’s largest defense supplier. Military cooperation between the two has deepened with joint projects producing armaments ranging from fighter jets to guided missile frigates. China is a steady source of military hardware for the resource-deficient Pakistani Army. It has not only given technology assistance to Pakistan but also helped Pakistan to set up mass weapons production factories.

But what has been most significant is China’s major role in the development of Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, emerging as Pakistan’s benefactor at a time when increasingly stringent export controls in Western countries made it difficult for Pakistan to acquire materials and technology from elsewhere.

The Pakistani nuclear weapons program is essentially an extension of the Chinese one. Despite being a member of the NPT, China has supplied Pakistan with nuclear materials and expertise and has provided critical assistance in the construction of Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. Although China has long denied helping any nation attain a nuclear capability, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, himself has acknowledged the crucial role China has played in his nation’s nuclear weaponization by gifting 50 kg of weapons grade-enriched uranium and tons of uranium hexafluoride for Pakistan’s centrifuges. This may be the only case where a nuclear weapons state has passed on weapons-grade fissile material as well as a bomb design to a nonnuclear weapons state.

India has been the main factor that has influenced China and Pakistan’s policies vis-a-vis each other. Whereas Pakistan wants to gain access to civilian and military resources from China to balance the Indian might in the subcontinent, China, viewing India as potential challenger in the strategic landscape of Asia, views Pakistan as it central instrument to counter Indian power in the region.

The China-Pakistan partnership serves the interests of both by presenting India with a potential two-front theater in the event of war with either country. Not surprisingly, one of the central pillars of Pakistan’s strategic policies for more than four decades has been its steady and ever-growing military relationship with China. And preventing India’s dominance of South Asia by strengthening Pakistan has been a strategic priority for China.

But with India’s ascent in global hierarchy and American attempts to carve out a strong partnership with India, China’s need for Pakistan is only likely to grow.

[SUP]It’s highly unlikely that China will give up playing the Pakistan card vis-a-vis India anytime soon. And in this business of great power politics, weakening nuclear nonproliferation will continue to be a second order priority for Beijing.[/SUP]

China-Pakistan nuclear axis defies nonproliferation aims - The Japan Times

 

[kawaraj]

Bullsh!t. Look who's talking.

Can you come up any fresh?

 

[sindhibrah]

Until every single country, including the U.S., destroys its nukes, every single country has the right to have nukes for self-defence.

 

[Kompromat]

@Bhai Zakir The question is,what does Hindostan plan to do about it?

 

[Slav Defence]

Until every single country, including the U.S., destroys its nukes, every single country has the right to have nukes for self-defence.

well said!and why is that so?so that they can keep their dominance and force the other countries to follow their instructionsso that nobody ever dare to challenge them.....udjat crap

 

[GR!FF!N]

don't want to troll..but that article has one point.China was signed NPT in 1992.and as per rules of NPT,Article I:Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to assist any non-nuclear weapon state to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices.Pakistan is a non signatory state of NPT.so,neither they are bound by clauses by IAEA and NPT,nor there is any clear idea for which purpose the nuclear materials and nuclear reactors will be used,nor any clear division of reactors under which a part(which will not use Chinese nuclear material) will be under Country's control while others(which will use foreign nuclear material) will be under International vigilance(just like India).If,by any chance,Pakistan wants to develop nukes with Chinese material,then It'll be China who will be bashed by International community for helping Pakistan to develop more nukes.and in worst case scenerio,if by any chance,any other country gets those material and develop nukes,China is going to be blamed for helping that country secretly.thats why IAEA is there to secure that no country will get nuclear materials via any "Illegal" Way..I don't have any small faith in China-Pakistan deal,but International bodies doesn't work that way.remember,India had to go a long way before they could complete the N deal.

 

[Hack-Hook]

The Nuclear nonproliferation regime become a toilet paper when France gave South africa and Israel Nuclear now hows and taught them how to make the Bomb and then USA advanced and protected Israel Nuclear program .

according to NPT nobody must gave Israel a non signatory any nuclear material and technology , but the west close its eye to it.


and I can't understand whats the different between US-India deal with China-Pakistan Deal

 

[Bhai Zakir]

@Bhai Zakir The question is,what does Hindostan plan to do about it?

India can take many steps like ranting in international press, world arena, different forums, call it act of war, provocative act, put sanction against a country who do this types of act (this will help us banning chinese imports saving jobs)

There are many overt and covert actions that can be done.

But for this we need a strong PM which obviously is not there so enjoy till then.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

India can take many steps like ranting in international press, world arena, different forums, call it act of war, provocative act, put sanction against a country who do this types of act (this will help us banning chinese imports saving jobs)

There are many overt and covert actions that can be done.

But for this we need a strong PM which obviously is not there so enjoy till then.

You have been barking all along... be it the purchase of f-16s, or nuke deal... nobody gives a sh!t.

 

[Kompromat]

India can take many steps like ranting in international press, world arena, different forums, call it act of war, provocative act, put sanction against a country who do this types of act (this will help us banning chinese imports saving jobs)

There are many overt and covert actions that can be done.

But for this we need a strong PM which obviously is not there so enjoy till then.

But sanctions will be vetoed at UNSC,even if they reach there in the first place.Majority of Our 58 OIC member states and our brotherly Muslim nations will either vote no or abstain from any such resolution. 8Gigawatt worth of agreements are in the pipeline or even if this happens,we already have the technology.

In response we will,divert IPP to China and will never allow Bhaarat to link the pipe from earth's largest gas source even when it lies 30kms away from its territory, we will restrict TAPI to Pakistan and will refuse India to link up EVER. We will make sure that India never gets,a cubic feet from our 52TCF shale reserves in the future.

We make sure that not a single stone from India reaches C.Asia from our territory. We will allow Chinese navy and subs to be parked within the strike distance to India's financial hub Gujrat,which we otherwise don't plan to do.

You see,Hindustan will bite nothing but dust if it attempted anything stupid like this,even if you get that jackass modi as your PM....even he will be made to lick salt.....sleep well

 

[tranquilium]

India can take many steps like ranting in international press, world arena, different forums, call it act of war, provocative act, put sanction against a country who do this types of act (this will help us banning chinese imports saving jobs)

There are many overt and covert actions that can be done.

But for this we need a strong PM which obviously is not there so enjoy till then.

You are going to try to sanction a country that is a member of the UNSC, does 1/4 of the industrial production of the entire world, possesses third largest nuclear stockpile in the world, largest army in the world and one of the only three nations that can produce fifth gen fighter and the engine of world economic growth? Good luck with that, let me know how that is going to fly.
When you can back your claims with real action, you don't have to bark out aloud to get people to listen.

 

[Kompromat]

You are going to try to sanction country that is a member of the UNSC, does 1/4 of the industrial production of the entire world, possesses third largest nuclear stockpile in the world, largest army in the world and one of the only three nations that can produce fifth gen fighter and the engine of world economic growth? Good luck with that, let me know how that is going to fly.
When you can back your claims with real action, you don't have to bark out aloud to get people to listen.

There is a metaphor in Urdu "Emptier the drum,louder the noise".

 

[Nan Yang]

"Snipped" It'll be China who will be bashed by International community for helping Pakistan to develop more nukes.and in worst case scenerio,if by any chance,any other country gets those material and develop nukes,China is going to be blamed for helping that country secretly.thats why IAEA is there to secure that no country will get nuclear materials via any "Illegal" Way..I don't have any small faith in China-Pakistan deal,but International bodies doesn't work that way. "Snipped" .

So so many countries helped Pakistan build the bomb. France, Canada, Japan and even Malaysian finger prints can be found on Pakistan bomb. But many Indian poster will ignore all these and believe ONLY China help.

This is call "Believing in a LIE because it meets your point of view and satisfy your anger towards China.

Development of nuclear weaponsMain articles: Project-706, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and Bangladesh liberation war
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 led to Pakistan losing roughly 56,000 square miles (150,000 km2) of territory as well as losing millions of its citizens to the newly created state of Bangladesh.[22] It was a psychological setback for Pakistanis; Pakistan had lost its geo-political, strategic, and economic influence in South-Asia.[22] Furthermore, Pakistan had failed to gather any moral support from its key allies, the United States and the People's Republic of China.[23] The 1971 war with India was a crushing defeat for Pakistan, and China failed to provide any significant assistance to Pakistan.[24] Isolated internationally, Pakistan seemed to be in great mortal danger, and quite obviously could rely on no one but itself.[23] At United Nations Security Council meeting, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto drew comparisons with the Treaty of Versailles which Germany was forced to sign in 1919. There, Bhutto vowed never to allow a repeat. Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was "obsessed" with India's nuclear program,[25] that is why Bhutto immediately came up with the idea of obtaining nuclear weapons to prevent Pakistan from signing another 'Treaty of Versailles' as it did in 1971.

In 1969, after a long negotiation, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) signed a formal agreement to supply Pakistan with a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant capable of extracting 360g of weapons-grade plutonium annually.[14] The PAEC selected a team five senior scientists, including geophysicist dr. Ahsan Mubarak,[14] were sent to Sellafield to receive technical training.[14] Later, the team under Ahsan Mubarak advised the government to not to acquire the whole reprocessing plant, but key parts important to build the weapons, while the plant would be built indigenously.[14]

At the Multan meeting on January 20, 1972, Bhutto stated, "What Raziuddin Siddiqui, a Pakistani, contributed for the United States during the Manhattan Project, could also be done by scientists in Pakistan, for their own people."[26] Raziuddin Siddiqui was a Pakistani theoretical physicist who, in the early 1940s, worked on both the British nuclear program and the US nuclear program.[27] Although a few Pakistanis worked on the Manhattan Project who were also willing to return and do the same for their native Pakistan, Prime Minister Bhutto still needed to recruit and bring in other Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers who never worked in the United States. This is where Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, a German educated metallurgical engineer, came into the picture. Some of the initial funding came from oil-rich Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia.

In later years, some funding for the continuation of the nuclear development programme came from the large British Pakistani population. In December 1972, Science Advisor to the President, Dr. Abdus Salam had called theoretical physicists from the ICTP to report of Munir Ahmad Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. This marked the beginning of the "Theoretical Physics Group" (TPG).[28] Later, Pakistani theoretical physicists at Institute of Theoretical Physics of Quaid-e-Azam University also joined the TPG headed by Salam.[29] The TPG, which directly reported to Abdus Salam in PAEC, was assigned to do research in the development of nuclear weapon devices, and conduct mathematical calculations on complex hydrodynamical phenomenons and the fast neutron calculations.[29] Professor Salam also had done the groundbreaking work of the "Theoretical Physics Group", which was initially headed by Salam until in 1974 when he left the country in protest.[29] The TPG division at PAEC closely collaborated and completed its physics and mathematical calculations on fast-neutron calculations with the Mathematics Group led by Raziuddin Siddiqui and others, a division which contained the pure mathematicians.[29] On other side, Munir Ahmad Khan began to work on indigenous development of nuclear fuel cycle and the weapons programme. Munir Ahmad Khan, with his lifelong friend Abdus Salam, had done a groundbreaking work in the nuclear development, and after Salam's departure from Pakistan, scientists and engineers who were researching under Salam, began to report to directly to Munir Ahmad Khan.[30] In 1974, Munir Ahmad Khan, days after Operation Smiling Buddha, launched the extensive plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment programme, and the research facilities were expanded throughout the country.[31]

In 1965,[32] amidst skirmishes that led up to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announced:

“ If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves for a thousand years, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. The Christians have the bomb, the Jews have the bomb and now the Hindus have the bomb. Why not the Muslims too have the bomb?[33][34] ”

In 1983, Khan was convicted in absentia by the Court of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for stealing the blueprints, though the conviction was overturned on a legal technicality.[35] A.Q. Khan then established a proliferation network through Dubai to smuggle URENCO nuclear technology to Khan Research Laboratories. He then established Pakistan's gas-centrifuge program based on the URENCO's Zippe-type centrifuge.[35][36][37][38][39]

Through the late 1970s, Pakistan's program acquired sensitive uranium enrichment technology and expertise. The 1975 arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan considerably advanced these efforts. Dr. Khan was a German-trained metallurgist who brought with him knowledge of gas centrifuge technologies that he had acquired through his position at the classified URENCO uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands. He was put in charge of building, equipping and operating Pakistan's Kahuta facility, which was established in 1976. Under Khan's direction, Pakistan employed an extensive clandestine network in order to obtain the necessary materials and technology for its developing uranium enrichment capabilities.[40]

“ It took only two weeks and three days for Pakistan to master the field... and (detonate) the nuclear devices of our own... ”
—Benazir Bhutto, on first nuclear tests on May 1998, [41]


A new directorate, known as Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) under Dr. Zaman Sheikh and Hafeez Qureshi, was established in March 1974 by Munir Ahmad Khan. The DTD was tasked to manufacture chemical explosive lenses, trigger mechanism, and tampers used in atomic weapon. The DTD was later charged with testing Pakistan's first implosion design in 1978, which was later improved and tested on 11 March 1983 when PAEC carried out Pakistan's first successful cold test of a nuclear device, codename Kirana-I. Between 1983 and 1990, PAEC carried out 24 more cold tests of various nuclear weapon designs. DTD had also manufactured a miniaturized weapon design by 1987 that could be delivered by all Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft.[42]

Also, Dr. Ishrat Hussain Usmani’s contribution to the nuclear energy programme, is also fundamental to the development of atomic energy for civilian purposes as he, with efforts led by Salam, established PINSTECH, that subsequently developed into Pakistan’s premier nuclear research institution.[29] In addition to sending hundreds of young Pakistanis abroad for training, he laid the foundations of the Muslim world’s first nuclear power reactor KANUPP, which was inaugurated by Munir Ahmad Khan in 1972. Thus, Usmani laid solid groundwork for the civilian nuclear programme.[citation needed] Scientists and engineers under Munir Ahmad Khan developed the nuclear capability for Pakistan within early 1980s, and under his leadership the PAEC had carried a cold test of nuclear device at Kirana Hills, evidently made from non-weaponized plutonium. Former chairman of the PAEC, Munir Ahmad Khan was credited as one of the pioneers of Pakistan's atomic bomb by a recent study from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London's dossier on Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.[10]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/13/usa.pakistan

Next he discovered that the Pentagon was preparing to sell Pakistan jet fighters that could be used to drop a nuclear bomb.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IK29Df02.html

While some of this is well known, a series of little-publicized letters between Khan and a Canadian-Pakistani engineer, Aziz Abdul Khan, in 1978 and 1979 offer a revealing look at the degree to which globalization shaped Pakistan's nuclear program. The so-called Islamic bomb turns out not to be an indigenous product, but instead a little bit American, Canadian, Swiss, German, Dutch, British, Japanese and even Russian.

 

[ares]

The Nuclear nonproliferation regime become a toilet paper when France gave South africa and Israel Nuclear now hows and taught them how to make the Bomb and then USA advanced and protected Israel Nuclear program .

according to NPT nobody must gave Israel a non signatory any nuclear material and technology , but the west close its eye to it.


and I can't understand whats the different between US-India deal with China-Pakistan Deal

The difference is, based on India's spotless non proliferation record, India received an exemption from NSG, passed by a majority vote of Nuclear suppliers group.

With all the Indian nuclear facilities(under this deal), will be for peaceful civilian use only(producing electricity) and will be under IAEA safeguard..where as there are no such restrictions on Pakistan..which usually uses its Chinese supplied reactors for military purposes.

 

[GR!FF!N]

So so many countries helped Pakistan build the bomb. France, Canada, Japan and even Malaysian finger prints can be found on Pakistan bomb. But many Indian poster will ignore all these and believe ONLY China help.

This is call "Believing in a LIE because it meets your point of view and satisfy your anger towards China.

I only post against the context of Pak-China nuclear deal.neither I posted on "How Pakistan made their bomb" or "How other countries violated NPT"..

Read the post,then understand the context,only then quote..And neither I posted due to my hate,nor I have any anger on China.but as a member of NPT,that deal should have come under International bodies like IAEA for strict vigilance,especially where Pakistan had shady past on this sector.got it??thats what other countries want too..its not some game they are playing here,nor some petty revenge they are taking over smaller countries..Its the steps they are trying to take towards nuclear free world.first step,strictly documenting every country's use of nuclear material.then Peaceful research is encouraged while new research on nuclear bomb is discouraged.and then ultimately,in a joint concensus,disarmament of every nuclear power..its going to take time..

any shady deal on nuclear element without NPT and IAEA is a blow to that effort.if Pakistan wants,they can join same kind of mechanism via which India got the nuclear deal.via voting by NSG,by putting section of nuclear reactors under the International bodies like IAEA,while keeping some other reactors for defence use..that wasn't too hard for us.