Posted on 07/22/2007 2:02:07 PM PDT by OrthodoxPresbyterian
Administration Poised to Subsidize China’s Nuclear Industry
by Timothy P. Carney
A Japanese-owned company is building nuclear power plants for Communist China, and the Bush administration is ready to use U.S. taxpayer dollars to subsidize the deal to the tune of $5 billion. Although China’s government-owned nuclear industry has a long record of illegal nuclear deals with Iran and Pakistan, administration officials say the technology is not transferable to nuclear weapons, and that the subsidy will create 5,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) is a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. exports by lending taxpayer money to foreign buyers (such as the Chinese government), or guaranteeing private loans, so that the foreign buyer can purchase U.S. goods.
Westinghouse Electric is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese company Toshiba. Westinghouse manufactures the AP 1000 -- a new model of nuclear power generator -- in Monroeville, Pa.
In February 2005, Ex-Im’s board of directors granted preliminary approval for a $5 billion subsidy -- an unspecified combination of loans and guarantees -- to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) as a way of aiding Westinghouse’s bid for the contract (a French company and a Russian company were also competing for the contract.)
This year, the Chinese government awarded the contract to Westinghouse, bringing the record subsidy closer to reality, although the preliminary approval does not guarantee Ex-Im will provide financing. A Westinghouse spokesman told HUMAN EVENTS the company was in the process of applying for Ex-Im financing. Ex-Im spokesman Phil Cogan told HUMAN EVENTS that while a preliminary commitment is by no means a promise by Ex-Im, it indicates that “this is the kind of thing” Ex-Im would subsidize.
Congressional critics from both ends of the spectrum, including Senator Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.) and Republican Representatives Ron Paul (Tex.), Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.), and Ed Royce (Calif.), have resisted this deal.
For the critics, the deal is problematic on at least three fronts. First, China’s state-owned nuclear industry has a long history of illegal nuclear weapons proliferation, and this subsidy enriches that very industry. Second, some of the jobs generated by this record subsidy deal will not be in the U.S. Finally, aiding China’s nuclear power industry could boost its military capabilities including its nuclear submarine programs.
Rewarding Proliferators
The CNNC is the branch of the Chinese government that manages both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. In recent months, CNNC and other state agencies founded the State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC). SNPTC, entirely owned by the Chinese government, is now the official purchaser of the nuclear reactors from Westinghouse.
CNNC is a known serial proliferator of nuclear weapons materials. In the late 1990s, U.S. intelligence agencies found that the CNNC had sold 5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan Research Laboratory. Later, the CIA found that the CNNC sold Pakistan high-temperature furnaces. Both the furnaces and the ring magnets are crucial tools used in enriching uranium to produce fissionable -- i.e., weapons grade -- uranium. Shortly after these sales, Pakistan tested its first nuclear weapon.
In 2004, A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist on the buying end of the CNNC’s sales, was arrested for selling centrifuge materials to Libya. Khan is also known to have aided the nuclear weapons programs of North Korea and Iran. CNNC has, on at least two occasions, had dealings with Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but it is not clear if China has ever actually executed a sale of nuclear weapons materials to Iran.
American Jobs?
Westinghouse and Ex-Im officials have defended this subsidy by pointing out that without it, China would still build the nuclear power plants, but in collaboration with the Russians or the French. By greasing the skids for the Westinghouse contract with its preliminary commitment in 2005, Ex-Im has helped make work for 5,000 manufacturing workers in Monroeville, Pa. In April, however, Westinghouse announced that portions of the power plants would be built in South Korea and other parts in China. Ex-Im cannot finance an export unless most of the goods are made in the U.S.
Westinghouse and the Bush administration point out, however, that if these cutting-edge reactors do well in China, it would spur domestic and world-wide business for Westinghouse, making more jobs in Pennsylvania.
Helping China’s Military?
In late May, Representatives Christopher Smith (R.-N.J.), Diane Watson (D.-Calif.), Fortenberry, and Royce, asked Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in a letter whether the sale could boost China’s military capabilities.
Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center said that there are reasons to worry about providing China with this technology. “You’re building an infrastructure that can be used and retooled to help out in [China’s] naval reactor sector -- and they do want this for nuclear subs,” the Christian Science Monitor quoted Sokolski.
Last year, during the debate on reauthorizing Ex-Im, the House passed by a 331-to-114 vote an amendment by Representatives Paul and Sanders that would have blocked a subsidy for this deal. The measure, however, was not in the final bill.
As of Tuesday morning, Ex-Im had not yet received an application from Westinghouse or any of its partners with regard to the sale. Sanders, Paul, or Fortenberry will likely act once Ex-Im receives the application, and possibly hold hearings on the deal, which would be the largest subsidy in Ex-Im history.
Please add me. (I’m a Hunter guy, but I do like Paul a lot.)
Presuming he establishes his credibility, which he hasn't.
I think he's largely a non event, but a distraction.
What makes me an ass for pointing that out?
Give the man credit for the times he stands up against evil. Reagan was cheered when he did.
Keep up the good work. The Viking Kitties will arrive shortly.
I actually thought the exact same thing. We could cut the price of this "jobs program" in half by just GIVING every proposed beneficiary $500,000 bucks each. Madness!!
bttt
This was written by Ron Paul for his “Texas Straight Talk” article on March 6, 2006. These people just copied it and posted it on March 12, 2006. They probably agree with his comments. I do too and I’m no neo-nazi.
To say he is a regular contributer and has neo-nazi views is disingenuous.
see:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst030606.htm
Does the “American Free Press” represent your views of the world?
Yeah, yeah -- "Everything that George Bush does is true and righteous altogether. For daring to question the all-holy George Bush and suggesting that a given Foreign Policy will actually make us less safe, Ron Paul is just a blame-America-defeatist-traitor-coward moonbat." I already posted your script at the beginning of the article. We've heard it already.
What? Reagan stood up against the greatest evil of his day, not just selected tidbits here and there. And the number one evil on our planet today — and for a long time to come — is the Jihadists and their leftist friends (and one “libertarian” friend) in Congress. The rest is all small stuff. We either stop the Jihadists, and the world survives, with all its other problems, or we fail, and none of the other problems matter.
Ron, who?
PRC: We Want.
Bush Administration: It's yours.
This has been Bush's sole policy on China. No demands. No accountability. No change. Just two Bubbas the China Bubba's and the Bush Bubbas milking the U.S. taxpayer for all their worth while selling our nations security and future for his friends 30 pieces of silver.
Or to put it in terms maybe people can understand George W Bush the other Bill Clinton minus interns.
Nobody is calling George Bush all-holy. That’s some fantasy of yours, festering in some unexamined corner of your brain. If you search our posts — my posts, the posts of others here critical of RP — you’ll find we have been highly critical of our President.
But RP is mouthing the talking points of Bin Laden, and RP is sticking his head in the sand rather than facing the number one issue of the century, and RP is voting with the worst block of leftists in congress. That’s above and beyond the call of incompetence. That’s incompetence bordering on, or crossing over into, treason.
If I were him, I'd disassociate myself from crypto Nazis.
No, they don't. And stop with the guilt-by-association BS. Some of Paul's supporters can be classified as kooks and nuts. Does he agree with them though?
They must be against the Fed too. :-). Do you have any references I can look at?
We tend to want to play Russian Roulette with no empty chambers, WTF!? Blackbird.
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