July 31, 1997

President William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We have heard disturbuing rumors conceming your reported plans to certify the 1985 Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between the U.S, and the People's Republic of China this fall. We are writing to strongly urge you not to do so.

According to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the United States must have a bilateral agreement for nuclear cooperation with any country it seeks to provide with the technologies, materials and services required to build nuclear power plants or other nuclear facilities. In 1985, such an agreement was negotiated with China. Before it is implemented, allowing the U.S. nuclear industry to sell nuclear power plants or fissile materials to China, the President must certify to Congress that China has become a reliable and responsible party to the international non-proliferation regime by halting all exports of nuclear technology to nations with unsafeguarded nuclear facilities in order to ensure that non-weapons states are not able to acquire nuclear weapons. No President has thus far been able to certify that this is the case, and we do not believe that it is possible to certify that it is the case today.

In February, 1996, it was reported that China had sold 5,000 ring magnets to Pakistan for use in Pakistan's uranium enrichment facility. Pakistan is not a signatory to the Non- Proliferation Treaty and does not allow the Internanonal Atomic Energy Agency, the agency charged with ensuring the peaceful application of nuclear technologies, to conduct inspections of all of its nuclear facilities. Pakistan and China denied that the sale had taken place. The Adrninistration decided not to impose sanctions on China and Pakistan for the sale in return for China's assurance that in the future it would only provide nuclear technologies to safeguarded nuclear facilities.

In the 198Os, China secretly constructed a nuclear reactor in Algeria. Press reports suggest that the reactor could have been intended for the production of nuclear weapons materials, indicating that the reactor is larger than required for nuclear research, that there are no electrical power generation facilities for civilian power distribution, that a surface-to-air missile battery is nearby, and that the facility is located at a remote site. After years of denial, China admitted to having assisted in constructing the reactor once aerial photographs identified it in 1991. Incidents such as these call into question the reliability of China's 'assurances'.

We do not believe that there exists substantial evidence that China has adopted export controls that are effective at halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and we are concerned that certifying the 1985 Nuclear Cooperation Agreement could accelerate the acquisition of nuclear weapons by non-weapons states such as Pakistan or Iran.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey
Member of Congress

Gerald B. Solomon
Member of Congress

Nancy Pelosi
Member of Congress

Dana Rohrabacher
Member of Congress

Richard A. Gephardt
Member of Congress

Christopher Cox
Member of Congress

Frank Pallone, Jr.
Member of Congress

Joe Scarborough
Member of Congress

Randy "Duke" Cunningham
Member of Congress

Jim Bunning
Member of Congress

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

John F. Tierney
Member of Congress

David E. Bonoir
Member of Congress

Maurice D. Hinchey
Member of Congress

Robert A. Underwood
Member of Congress

Ellen O. Tauscher
Member of Congress

Nita M. Lowey
Member of Congress

John W. Olver
Member of Congress

Lucille Roybal-Allard
Member of Congress

Tillie K. Fowler
Member of Congress

Cynthia A. McKinney
Member of Congress

Peter A. DeFazio
Member of Congress

Chet Edwards
Member of Congress

Tom A. Coburn
Member of Congress

James T. Walsh
Member of Congress

Lane Evans
Member of Congress

Howard L. Berman
Member of Congress

William O. Lipinski
Member of Congress

James A. Traficant, Jr.
Member of Congress

Neil Abercrombie
Member of Congress

Frank Mascara
Member of Congress

Patrick J. Kennedy
Member of Congress

Carolyn B. Maloney
Member of Congress

John Hostettler
Member of Congress

William D. Delahunt
Member of Congress

Jim Ryan
Member of Congress

Bill Pascrell Jr.
Member of Congress

Todd Tiahrt
Member of Congress

Donald M. Payne
Member of Congress

Jim Saxton
Member of Congress

Peter Hoekstra
Member of Congress

Ted Strickland
Member of Congress

Karen Thurman
Member of Congress

Bob Schaffer
Member of Congress

J.C. Watts Jr.
Member of Congress

Mark Foley
Member of Congress

Diana DeGette
Member of Congress

Peter T. King
Member of Congress

Walter B. Jones
Member of Congress

Sam Johnson
Member of Congress

Sherrod Brown
Member of Congress

Sue Myrick
Member of Congress

Eleanor Holmes Norton
Member of Congress

Michael Pappas
Member of Congress

Thomas M. Barrett
Member of Congress

John E. Peterson
Member of Congress

James E. Clyburn
Member of Congress

Jim Turner
Member of Congress

Frank R. Wolf
Member of Congress

Marcy Kaptur
Member of Congress

James A. Leach
Member of Congress

Sherwood L. Boehlert
Member of Congress

62 signatories total.


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