Part 2 of 2 Parts - Please read Part 1 first.
In my last post, I talked about how China and Pakistan were conspiring to deny India membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India's membership is strongly supported by some members of the NSG such as the United States. China is having Pakistan apply for membership in NSG at the same time as India applies because it knows that that Pakistan's application will be turned down. Then China will veto India's application and try to appear neutral because Pakistan is being denied membership. The U.S. is not happy about this.
China is defending its position on Indian membership because India has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NSG was formed out of concern that nuclear technology intended for developing nuclear power could be diverted to nuclear weapons programs. The NSG is seen as an additional safe guard against nuclear weapons proliferation in conjunction with the NPT. China wants to make signing the NPT a prerequisite for membership in the NSG.
U.S. representatives have said that the Obama administration feels that India has "met missile technology control regime requirements." I guess this is another way of saying that India is abiding by the terms of the NPT even though it has not signed the NPT. India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons but neither have signed the NPT.
China currently has a deal with Pakistan to build three nuclear reactors. China claims that that the three reactor deal is covered under a previous agreement that China has signed with Pakistan before China became a member of the NSG. Critics of the Chinese position point out that China intends to ship nuclear technology to Pakistan that did not exist before China became a member of the NSG. However, other members of the NSG are not exerting pressure on China over the Pakistan nuclear deal. China has said that if India is allowed to enter the NSG without signing the NPT, then China would consider ignoring the NSG entirely in its nuclear technology exports to Pakistan.
In much the same way as the U.S. has been sponsoring Indian membership in the NSG, China has been trying to get Pakistan into the NSG. China claims that Pakistan has "has taken steps towards its mainstreaming into the global non-proliferation regime". Critics of allowing Pakistan into the NSG point to past incidents of Pakistan selling nuclear technology to Rogue regimes such as Libya, Iran and North Korea. While Pakistan did put the nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan who was responsible for much of this illicit nuclear technology transfer under house arrest, critics of Pakistan say that they have not really seriously punished him for his actions. It is thought by some that A.Q. Khan was merely the front man for nuclear trade that was approved of by the Pakistani government for political and economic reasons.
Unfortunately, regardless of treaties and safeguards, if nations want to divert dual use nuclear technology from peaceful uses to weapons programs, it will be difficult to stop them after the fact. We are entering a dangerous period in which nuclear armed nations are turning away from disarmament and investing heavily in upgrading their nuclear weapons programs. This includes the U.S., Russia, China, Pakistan and India.
