CNS - China's Nuclear Exports and Assistance to South Asia

Archived Material

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ARCHIVED MATERIAL

This page is no longer being reviewed/updated.

Resources on India and Pakistan

China's Nuclear Exports and Assistance to South Asia

Although China has had some nuclear trade and cooperation with India, China's far more significant nuclear relationship in South Asia is that with Pakistan. Indeed, China's nuclear trade with Pakistan has caused as much or more nonproliferation concern than China's nuclear trade with any other country. China's nuclear relationship with Pakistan, which in the past has included reports of supplying entire bomb designs and conducting a test of a Pakistani nuclear device at China's Lop Nur testing range, have created substantial controversy with the United States. In 1996, Washington came close to imposing sanctions on China for the sale of ring magnets to an unsafeguarded Pakistani nuclear laboratory. Sanctions were only averted by China's 11 May 1996 pledge not to provide assistance to unsafeguarded nuclear facilities, a reaffirmation of its nonproliferation pledges, and a specific clarification that these pledges would preclude the future transfer or ring magnets. Despite Western nonproliferation concerns, China and Pakistan have both continually insisted that their nuclear cooperation is strictly for peaceful purposes.

For more in-depth information on open-source reports of Chinese exports and assistance, please consult the CNS Nuclear Abstracts database.

CHINA'S NUCLEAR EXPORTS AND ASSISTANCE TO SOUTH ASIA

COUNTRY REPORTED AREA OF CHINESE NUCLEAR ASSISTANCE

INDIA

Heavy water (D2O):

--130-150 metric tons (1982-1987) (supplied without safeguards)
Low-enriched uranium (LEU) (1995):

--For India's Tarapur BWRs (supplied under IAEA safeguards)
Uranium enrichment services:

--For India's Tarapur BWRs (supplied under IAEA safeguards)

PAKISTAN

Fuel fabrication services

Heavy water (D2O):

--Up to 5 MT/year for safeguarded PHWR [Kanupp] research reactor
--Possibly diverted by Pakistan to the Khushab research reactor against Chinese wishes
Nuclear weapons program (assistance) (1980s-90s)

Nuclear weapon design (Possibly Chic-4 design provided in 1980s)

Nuclear weapon testing (inclusion of Pakistani observers in Chinese test at Lop Nur) (1989)

Power plant computer system for Chashma-1 (CHASNUPP-1) (1997)

Power reactors:

--Chashma-1 (CHASNUPP-1) (supplied under IAEA safeguards--INFCIRC/418) (1993)
--Chashma-2 (CHASNUPP-2) (1997-)
Reprocessing (plutonium extraction) plant (unsafeguarded) (at Chashma)

--Assistance with construction
Research reactors:

--Khushab 50-70 MW Heavy Water Reactor (unsafeguarded) (assistance with construction)
--Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) (supplied under IAEA safeguards--INFCIRC/393) (1991)
--Parr-1 (unsafeguarded)
--Parr-2 (the China Institute of Atomic Energy [CIAE] designed the reactor's nuclear system)
Ring magnets (about 5,000) (to unsafeguarded A.Q. Khan Research Laboratory in Kahuta) (1995) (supplied without safeguards)

Special industrial furnace and high-tech diagnostic equipment (to unsafeguarded Khushab reactor) (supplied without safeguards) (September 1996)

Tritium gas (1986) (supplied without safeguards)

Uranium enrichment (assistance to unsafeguarded Kahuta enrichment facility)

Weapons-grade uranium for two devices (1980s) (supplied without safeguards)

[CHINA'S NUCLEAR EXPORTS AND ASSISTANCE TO PAKISTAN]

[CHINA'S MISSILE EXPORTS AND ASSISTANCE TO SOUTH ASIA]

[CHINA AND THE NUCLEAR TESTS IN SOUTH ASIA]

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