Asia News Digest
NRC Approval Allows Westinghouse To Bid on Chinese Nuclear Plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted Final Design Approval to the Westinghouse Electric company Sept. 13 for its AP1000 standard nuclear power plant design, which allows the company now to enter a bid for the next nuclear plants to be built in China. The AP1000 is a 1,000 MW version of Westinghouse's next-generation, passively safe standard AP600 reactor design, which was NRC-certified in 1999. While no new nuclear plants have been ordered in the U.S., China has made known its intention to put out bids for four new nuclear power plants by the end of this year, and Westinghouse, Areva in France, and AtomStroyExport (ASE), in Russia, are expected to place bids. In April, the Chinese told U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that they plan to build about 30 nuclear plants by 2020.
Although China and the U.S. signed agreements in 1985 to share nuclear technology, sanctions imposed in 1989 after Tiananmen Square, and additional export controls in the wake of accusations of Chinese proliferation and technology theft, have led the Chinese to ask the Administration for guarantees of long-term access to nuclear technology should it purchase U.S. reactors. Whichever vendor secures the contract for the next plants will most likely be chosen for the great bulk of the total, since China would like to adopt a standardized design across its industry.
North Korea Halts Six-Party Talks Until After U.S. Elections
North Korea has told Russia, China, and even visiting British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, that it has no plans to attend Six-Power Talks until after the U.S. election Nov. 2, Russian talks delegation chief Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alekseyev told Interfax Sept. 14. Alekseyev told his South Korean counterpart Lee Soo-Hyuck in Moscow, that while talks were scheduled this month, Pyongyang has indicated to Moscow that "this now cannot be done."
"The North Koreans were saying they were committed to the six-party process, but weren't prepared to commit to a date," Britain's Rammell, told reporters in Beijing Sept. 14 after a four-day visit to Pyongyang. One factor "is the timing of the American Presidential election," Rammell said. Contacts have been intense. A Russian delegation led by Sergei Mironov, speaker of Russia's upper house, met Sept. 13 with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, ITAR-TASS said. South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun visits Russia Sept. 20-22 for talks on North Korea and trans-Siberian railway links.
The neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration are using the story to beat their war drums. "North Korea is looking for an extended delay in the talks, and has told China there was no point in continuing the talks at all," the usual anonymous "senior U.S. official" told the New York Times Sept. 14. "It's too early to draw a conclusion on this, but it does appear that the North Koreans have been stalling," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Sept. 14.
Pyongyang was deliberately provoked by the August passage, by the U.S. House of Representatives, of the North Korean Human Rights Act on North Korean refugees in China. Also, in late October, the U.S. Navy, the Japanese Coast Guard, and others will conduct exercises off North Korea, under Cheney's "Proliferation Security Initiative," which will practice seizing seaborne illicit cargoes from an unnamed country. "Pyongyang's hardline military will say, 'I told you so, they plan to attack us,'" former Clinton aide Kenneth Quinones said.
Malaysia's Ibrahim Cannot Run for Office Until 2009
Malaysia's high court has refused to hear an appeal on former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's original corruption conviction, meaning he will remain barred from politics for five years, Agence France Presse reported Sept. 15. Last month, the Court overturned his second sodomy conviction, which allowed his release from jail. Although Anwar has finished serving the corruption conviction, he was appealing to have that charge overturned as well, so that he could reenter politics.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced Sept. 14, that UMNO, the ruling party, had decided to bar Anwar from rejoining the party. "The door for entry into UMNO is closed for now," Abdullah told reporters. Anwar led a revolt, with U.S. Vice President Al Gore's overt assistance, against Prime Minister Mahathir in 1998, after he was dismissed from his position.
Afghan President Karzai 'Fires' Herat Warlord
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on behalf of U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, has "fired" Herat warlord Ismail Khan, according to news accounts Sept. 12. Karzai's offer for Khan to become a minister in Kabul was rejected by Khan, who said he was "a military man, not an engineer." Khan's militia controls the Herat region near Iran, using the considerable taxes from the Iran trade to run the regionand sending little of the revenue to Kabul. Recent fighting with other warlords is reported to have been instigated by the U.S./Kabul regime, for the purpose of weakening Khan. Khalilzad and other U.S. reps were quick to praise the announced dumping of Ismail Khan. However, in Herat, demonstrators sacked the UN offices, and Afghan troops opened fire, killing eight and wounding 15.
While Ismail Khan agreed to step down as governor, it is unlikely he will give up any real power. National elections are scheduled for Oct. 9, and Khan is expected to support one of Karzai's opponents.
Philippines President Plans $5 Billion Rail and Metro Program
In another sign of sanity coming from Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, she is insisting on a rapid full implementation of her plan for five metro Manila light rail extensions, as well as two major rail programs, one heading south from Manila, the other, the Northrail project, which China has agreed to finance with very favorable conditions. Socioeconomic Planning Minster Romulo Neri insisted that the nation has no choice but to proceed with these projects despite the financial crisis, "because these were sorely needed by the economy." Exporters Confederation president Sergio Ortiz-Luis added that they should be accounted as investments, rather than expenses.
India Offers Full Support for Philippines Nuclear Program
Speaking in Sydney, Australia, at the 19th World Energy Council Congress and Exhibition, Ravinder Mago, general manager of the Nuclear Power Corp. of India, said on Sept. 13 that the benefits of nuclear power, even for a small country like the Philippines, made it an obvious candidate for helping supply the country's future energy needs.
He noted that Vietnam, also a small and developing country like the Philippines, was keen on tapping nuclear sources for its energy requirements. Should the Philippines decide to invest in nuclear power generation, he said the Indian government was willing to provide any form of assistance it could offer.
The Arroyo Administration has recently indicated that it was putting the possibility of nuclear development back on the table, for the first time since the 1986 coup against President Ferdinand Marcos resulted in the insane scrapping of a fully completed but unused nuclear plant.
Bush Admin. Imposes More 'Punishment' on Philippines
The U.S. is cutting the promised $25 million in military aid to the Philippines by $10 million, the Manila times reported Sept. 13. The funds were earmarked for training and equipping the Navy Sea Bees. President George Bush promised the money in May 2003 as a reward for President Arroyo's sending troops to Iraq, but has imposed several verbal and financial punishments since Arroyo withdrew those troops, in exchange for the release of a kidnapped Filipino worker.
Interest Rates Jump on Philippines Government Debt
After Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a "fiscal crisis" in the Philippines in early September, interest rates leaped to a record high, the highest in the region, according to the Daily Tribune Sept. 15. Showing telltale signs of the pending disaster, Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong told the Senate Committee on Finance Sept. 14 that the government's foreign borrowing cost had reached 4.9% over the international benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), when it sold $1 billion in sovereign bonds last week. This is up from 4.0% over LIBOR before, and compares with Malaysia's at 0.87% over LIBOR, and Thailand's, 1.00%.
The fiscal crisis is expected to blow up in the face of President Arroyo next year when some $11.3 billion worth of foreign and domestic debts mature, in addition to interest payments, which raise the total to $23 billion, the Tribune reported.
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