US seeks role in China's A-power

Relations between the United States and China are strained over Washington's sale of arms to Taiwan and the detention of an American graduate student in Peking. But US and Chinese officials are continuing efforts for an unprecedented agreement which would open the way for US companies to bid for a role in China's nuclear power program.

In a separate step, the Reagan administration is moving to improve relations with Peking by asking Congress to update laws that specifically bar China, as a communist country, from receiving food aid.

Those moves are likely to increase concern on Taiwan and in some parts of Southeast Asia that despite all the publicity about the rift between Washington and Peking, events may be moving too far in the other direction.

According to Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel, the nuclear talks, described as preliminary discussions so far, are breaking new ground in US nuclear export policy.

For the first time the US is talking about a nuclear cooperation agreement with a country that has the atomic bomb, has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and refuses to accept international safeguards against diversion of nuclear material into weapons.

Instead China would be expected to give ''reasonable assurances'' that material from reactors supplied by the United States would not be used to make weapons, officials said.

You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
QR Code to US seeks role in China's A-power
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0603/060315.html
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us