What? Selling Uranium To China?
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006A Parliamentary Committee has given the green light to the sale of Australian uranium to China. The committee has concluded that the sale would be in the national interest of Australia. IT was convinced that there are suitable measures in place to ensure that Australia’s uranium would only be used for peaceful processes.
Committee chairman Andrew Southcott said, “Both Government and opposition members of the committee have concluded that the sale of uranium to China, protected by these safeguards, is in the national interest”.
One of the so-called “measures” in place include China’s membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Australian Democrats Deputy Leader, Andrew Bartlett has said, “Australia’s bilateral safeguards are inadequate because they rely on the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which the agency’s own director says is flawed.”
Even the Committee Deputy Chairman Kim Wilkie admitted that there were legitimate concerns about the effectiveness of the IAEA to monitor nuclear activity.
It is well known that China is increasing its nuclear capability. I cannot believe that we can adequately monitor what happens with the uranium once it leaves the Australian shores.
Don’t take my word for it, though.
Each year, the US Department of Defense releases a report on the military power of the People’s Republic of China. I will quote a few statements in their latest annual report to Congress, “Military Power of the People’s Republic of China 2006″:
Estimates place Chinese defense expenditure at two to three times officially disclosed figures. The outside world has little knowledge of Chinese motivations and decision-making or of key capabilities supporting PLA modernization.
This lack of transparency prompts others to ask, as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld did in June 2005: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases? Why these continuing robust deployments?
Many aspects of China’s national security policy, including its motivations, intentions, and decisionmaking processes, remain secret. Key aspects of China’s military modernization goals and plans are not transparent.
Since the early 1990s, China has steadily increased resources for the defense sector. On March 5, 2006, a spokesperson for China’s National People’s Congress announced that China would increase its publicly disclosed military budget in 2006 by 14.7 percent, to approximately $35 billion. The 2006 increases continue a trend of double-digit increases in China’s published fi gures that has prevailed since 1990. When adjusted for inflation, the nominal increases have produced double-digit actual increases in China’s official military budget every year since 1996. However, the officially published figures substantially underreport actual expenditures.
DIA estimates that China’s total military-related spending will amount to between $70 billion and $105 billion in 2006—two to three times the announced budget.
If the Chinese government will not even be transparent about how much it spends on military-related spending, how can they be trusted about what they will use the uranium for?
I do not think that the estimated $250 million per year from uranium sales is worth the risk of Australia’s uranium powering China’s nuclear weapons.
What are your thoughts?
Calvin Close
Managing Director
Australia’s Mining Reference