Indo-US N-deal smacks of double standards: Chinese scholar

BEIJING: Defending China's cooperation with Pakistan in the nuclear technology field, a Chinese academic today questioned US-India nuclear deal, saying that it smacked of double standards.

"China's cooperation with Pakistan in nuclear power is for peaceful means and is supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA).

The US always questions Pakistan's nuclear activities, but how about its latest nuclear deal with India?," Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted He Maochun, Director of the Research Centre for Economic Diplomacy Studies of Tsinghua University as saying.

He Maochun, the newspaper said was referring to an agreement reached on Monday between India and US on reprocessing nuclear material, which would allow India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from the US, thus clearing a major hurdle in putting into operation a landmark nuclear deal signed between the two sides in 2008.

He made the comments while reacting to report by the CIA carried in the Washington Times stating that China's proliferation activities of nuclear and missile technology have threatened nuclear security and some Chinese companies were linked to nuclear and missile programmes of Pakistan and Iran.

Richard Fisher, a senior fellow of Asian military affairs at the US based International Assessment and Strategy Centre stated in Washington Times that China sold plenty of nuclear and missile technology to Pakistan, Iran and North Korea long before Beijing put export-control laws onto the books.

He said, "Fisher's allegations smacks of US double standards. His comments are typical US double-standard on the issue."

Accusing US of putting out reports linking Chinese companies to Pakistan and Iran's nuclear programme as a retaliation for Beijing's refusal to back UN sanctions against Iran, He Maochun said, "Beijing is not standing by Washington on the Iran nuclear issue, so here comes the media pressure."

"The nuclear issues involving Iran and North Korea have multiple influential factors and a complex historic background.

Singling out China in those issues is unfair and irresponsible," He Maochun said.