Debate looms on China uranium sale/Australia

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THE Federal Government would have to take on environmentalists and China-phobic nationalists over any move to sell uranium to China, a United States think-tank said today. Private sector intelligence group Stratfor said Australia's uranium plan fitted into a far bigger political picture which included a free trade agreement, the West's arms embargo against China, Australia's place in Asia and international nuclear politics.

The Government today said it would start formal negotiations with China for the export of Australian uranium. It is likely to cover safeguards to ensure the uranium is only used for peaceful purposes.
But Stratfor said the plan was likely to hit problems within and outside Australia from a raft of opponents. "Australia is headed for a heated debate pitting an unlikely alliance of anti-nuclear greens and China-phobic nationalists against the government's desire to assert itself in Asia and to boost its revenue stream in the process," Stratfor said in an analysis released today.

"The future of Australia as an Asian nation and the direction of massive Chinese energy consumption hang in the balance." Stratfor said the Government would have to convince Australian voters that selling uranium to China was in the country's long term economic interests, and not a cause for security concerns. It said uranium was central to the issues of economic and physical security.

"If Australia is to fuel Chinese nuclear expansion, it must overcome a local population wary of nuclear material, a general public doubtful of job security under a free-trade arrangement with China, and a US administration concerned that new Chinese nuclear development will come at the expense of regional security balance," it said. Stratfor said Australia risked alienating the US if it pushed too hard for regional co-operation and Asia-based security assurances.


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