Let’s Make It a New Beginning

Did the Washington Post publish – by chance – new secrets regarding an old nuclear military collaboration between China and Pakistan only two days before President Obama’s first visit to Peking? Or was the publication aimed at warning him against overconfidence in China?

In fact, the newspaper published the last confessions of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, who is under house arrest in his country.

According to Khan, in 1982, a Pakistani military airplane returned from China loaded with fifty kilograms of uranium, enough for two atomic bombs, and a virtual do-it-yourself nuclear weapon kit. This was part of a secret nuclear deal approved in 1976 by the Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, two years after the first Indian nuclear experiment.

Furthermore, Khan offered Peking his expertise in the European nuclear reactors on which he was working in the Netherlands, thereby contributing to the activation of China’s lagging uranium-enrichment program. The collaboration was indeed continuous between the two countries under the auspices of Khan; he was sending planes loaded with equipment and supplies to China in exchange for nuclear fuel.

In fact, this was a serious violation of the 1968 International Non- Proliferation Treaty on the part of a nuclear country. The C.I.A. has known about this and confronted the Chinese, who denied it. Therefore, Washington had to be silent and overlook the imposition of sanctions on Peking despite the fact that other violations have arisen from that situation; Khan transferred the nuclear information to Iran and Libya, as well.

It is worth mentioning that China still refuses to confess to violating the International Treaty and Pakistan refuses to send Khan to the U.S. for investigation. Accordingly, it is difficult for Washington to counter the risks of nuclear proliferation, especially since Peking is still not encouraged to impose sanctions on Iran for having a nuclear program.

Perhaps this information called Obama’s attention to facts that he should remember before his visit to China, or maybe it made his mission more complicated. Regardless, his task became more important and more insistent. Obama wants Peking to help the U.S. as a large, responsible international power and to aid America honestly in order to solve the problem of nuclear proliferation and specifically the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.

It is worth noting that Obama wants neither to blockade Peking nor to hold it accountable for its previous mistakes. He just wants Peking to collaborate with him in protecting humanity from this frightening danger. But will Peking respond?