CHINA: Cranston Cites Nuclear Exports : China Exports Nuclear Items, Cranston Says

China has been discussing or engaging in nuclear trade with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s regime in Iran and has exported nuclear-related material to several nations suspected of working to obtain weapons, according to Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

As a result, Cranston will call today for Congress to deny approval of a U.S.-Chinese nuclear cooperation agreement, which was initialed in April, 1984, because he says it lacks adequate assurances that China will not help other nations to develop nuclear weapons.

The agreement was submitted to Congress in July after a year of discussions with Peking on curbing Chinese nuclear exports to Pakistan and other nations believed to be seeking the capability to make bombs.

“Chinese actions suggest that we are dealing with a nation that decidedly does not share our sense of non-proliferation obligations which, by U.S. law, we must expect of our nuclear customers,” Cranston said in a statement made available in advance to The Times.

Senior U.S. officials said, however, that they have seen nothing in the last year to suggest that China is not living up to its obligations to safeguard and refuse to export nuclear materials and components useful in making bombs.

Before the U.S.-Chinese agreement was submitted to Congress, one official said: “We sorted out with the Chinese what non-proliferation meant. If they act inconsistent with that understanding, we will holler and/or terminate our cooperation.”

China reportedly plans to build as many as a dozen nuclear power plants, involving $6 billion or more in imports from U.S. firms, over the next 20 years.

‘Part of Solution’ Now

“China used to be part of the problem of proliferation,” the official added, “but now it’s part of the solution, in our view. China used to think proliferation was good (because it undermined the hegemony of the two superpowers); now it thinks proliferation is bad.”

The basic disagreement between Cranston, a determined opponent of proliferation, who is seeking reelection next year, and the Administration appears to focus on whether China has permanently changed its attitude or might revert to its previous practices after it gets U.S. aid, according to Administration officials.

But Cranston claimed that China either has “engaged in serious nuclear trade negotiations with, or actually has continued a series of nuclear exports (to Iran, South Africa, Pakistan, Argentina and Brazil) . . . subsequent to Chinese discussions with Reagan Administration officials on the importance of curbing such troublesome exports.”

His statement suggested that U.S. intelligence has discovered that a Sino-Iranian nuclear deal was discussed or concluded during conversations held by Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, with Chinese officials in Peking in June.

At that time, Iran and China set up a joint economic and technical cooperation committee, which is suspected of being a possible cover for secret exchanges between the two nations, Cranston indicated.

Insufficient ‘Prudence’

“China has not shown in its discussions of nuclear commerce with (Rafsanjani) . . . anywhere near the type of prudence we would expect,” the senator said. He complained that his requests for an “unfiltered, uncolored briefing” by U.S. intelligence analysts have not been met.

The CIA has offered to brief the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it is understood, but has refused to discuss the issue before the full committee, of which Cranston is a member, for fear that sensitive intelligence sources might later be exposed.

Cranston, who is the Democratic whip in the Senate, also asserted that there has been a serious disagreement among U.S. intelligence agencies over evidence of the alleged Chinese-Iranian relationship, which the Administration has covered up, as well as detailed opposition to the U.S.-Chinese agreement from Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, which the State Department has suppressed.

Another senior official, while refusing comment on intelligence matters, said that Iran has asked virtually every nation in Europe for help in putting into service two nuclear power reactors that West Germany was building for the government of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi before he was overthrown in 1979.

“It would not be surprising if they asked the Chinese as well,” this official said. “But there is no evidence of significant (Chinese) cooperation with Iran.”

U.S. Sought Ban

The State Department last year, amid rumors that Iran was seeking such help, called on other nations to ban sales of nuclear material to Tehran. However, it noted that there was no evidence that Iran had the necessary equipment to make a nuclear explosive device and that the uncompleted reactors were designed to use ordinary, or light, water for cooling.

Such reactors are not well-suited for making bomb-grade fissionable material.

Cranston also charged that China has “greatly assisted Pakistan by providing sophisticated nuclear warhead designs.” It has continued exports this year of heavy water to Argentina, sold low-enrichment (not bomb-grade) uranium to South Africa through European middle men, and “engaged in nuclear commerce” with Brazil, the senator said.

Those four non-nuclear nations are believed to be working toward weapons capability. In addition, India detonated a nuclear device in 1974, and India and Israel are both believed to have components ready to quickly assemble at least several nuclear weapons.

Neither the heavy water nor the low-grade uranium allegedly sold to Argentina and South Africa are banned from export by the so-called Nuclear Suppliers Group of industrial nations, although the United States has urged that such materials not be sold to nations suspected of working to develop bombs.