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SPEECH BY HEAD OF CHINESE DELEGATION MINISTER JIANG XINXIONG AT 31st IAEA
GENERAL CONFERENCE
(Translation)
September 1987
Mr. President,
At the outset, please allow me to read out here the message of
congratulations to this Conference from Premier Zhao Ziyang of the State Council
of the People's Republic of China:
"The Thirty-First General Conference of the International Atomic Energy
Agency,
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, I wish to extend, on behalf of the Chinese Government, my
congratulations to the Conference.
Over the past 30 years, the IAEA has played a positive and effective role in facilitating and ensuring the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and in promoting international cooperation in this field. I sincerely hope Chat such a role can be further enhanced.
Since it became a member of the IAEA, China has enjoyed satisfactory
cooperation with the Agency- I am confident that such cooperation will surely be
consolidated and increased. I would like to reiterate hereby that the Chinese
Government desires to further strengthen its cooperation with the Agency and its
other Member States, and contribute its share Co the peaceful uses of nuclear
energy in the world.
May the Conference be crowned with complete success!"
Mr. President,
Now, please allow me to convey, on behalf of the Chinese Delegation and in
my own name, our warm congratulations to you on your
election to the presidency of this Conference. We are
confident chat under your able and experienced guidance,
this Conference will achieve full success.
Mr. President,
In the 30 years since its establishment, the Agency has, with the efforts of
its Secretariat and the support of Member Governments
and in order to realize the objectives of its Statute,
actively conducted cooperation in various fields of the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy such as nuclear power,
nuclear safety, radiation protection, and the production
and application of isotopes. Especially in the
recent 10 years or so, the Agency has provided necessary
and useful assistance to Its Member States in various
forms, the developing ones in particular, and thus
greatly promoted the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
What is worth mentioning here is that it took only two
months to formulate the two conventions respectively on
early notification and emergency assistance under the
auspices of the Agency last year. In this regard I
am glad to inform you, Mr. President, that China has
already deposited the Instruments of retification of the
two conventions with the Director-General. In view
of all the work it has done, we can say chat the Agency
is a competent international organ for promoting
international cooperation in the peaceful uses of
nuclear energy in our world today.
The Agency's role in ensuring the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is
well-known to all. For 30 years it has done a lot
of useful work in implementing safeguards at the request
of its Member States.
Mr. President,
The Agency's role in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is beyond question.
However, due to various reasons, this role has not been
brought into full play. Given today's extremely
unbalanced development of nuclear energy, we hope the
developed countries will give greater support Co the
Agency and contribute more to helping other Member
States In developing nuclear energy. Of course,
the Agency Itself should also live up to the
expectations of the Member States in terms of increasing
the implementation and effectiveness of its technical
assistance projects and using economically its limited
resources.
Mr. President,
Since it became a member of the Agency in 1984, China has enjoyed
satisfactory cooperation with the Agency- In the
past four years, China has sent many experts to
participate in various technological activities
sponsored by the Agency, and actively engaged in
cooperation with the Agency and its other Member States.
Especially in the recent two years, entrusted by the
Agency, China has held various training courses of
practical significance to economic development, and has
trained more than 100 people for the developing
countries. China has also hosted meetings on the
technology of insect disinfestation by irradiation, food
preservation by irradiation, isotope hydrology,
semi-dwarf mutants for rice improvement, etc., thus
providing experts from various countries with
opportunities of academic exchanges. More
activities of this kind are expected Co be held in China
next year. Moreover, China Is planning and has
started to provide technical services to the Agency and,
through the Agency, to other developing Member States.
In short, China is ready Co do its utmost to contribute
to the work of the Agency.
Mr. President,
In keeping with the development of its national economy, China is striving
Co speed up construction of Its nuclear power plants and
accelerate the application of nuclear energy In other
fields. The construction of Qinshan Nuclear Power
Plant which is independently designed and manufactured
by China, is going on smoothly. With the
completion of the pre-engineering, construction of the
Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant introduced from Britain and
France started last August. China gives first
priority to safety in the construction of nuclear power
plants. In the field of nuclear research, China's
first tandem accelerator went into operation this year,
creating necessary conditions for the basic research in
nuclear physics in China. In nuclear research, we
in China have adopted the principle of combining basic
research with application. While exerting great
efforts in the construction of such large-scale
facilities as Tokamak torus device, we pay attention to
R&D projects such as the gamma irradiation facility as
well. China has made substantial progress in the
isotope and radiation technology which has been success
fully applied in the development of national economy and
people's health with marked economic and social results.
Mr. President,
Despite the fact chat the path the world's development of nuclear energy has
traversed in the past three decades was a tortuous one,
we are nevertheless optimistic about its future
prospects. World economy will develop, people's
livelihood needs improvement and the energy requirement
will be increasing, therefore, nuclear energy ought to
make greater contribution to the benefit of mankind.
Mr. President,
In expressing China's commitment to the strengthening of international
cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and
its support for the objectives provided for in the
Statute of the Agency, we have decided Co place some of
China's civilian nuclear installations under the Agency
safeguards and have conducted two rounds of negotiations
with the Agency on the conclusion of an agreement in
this regard. Through the negotiations, an
agreement has been reached on the text. Looking
back on the history of the development of nuclear energy
and the path the Agency has traversed over the past
three decades, we are confident that the peaceful uses
of nuclear energy and the international coopera-tion in
this field will have broad prospects. It is our
sincere wish that the Agency will promote the
realization of the objectives of seeking to accelerate
and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace,
health and prosperity throughout the world as contained
in its Statute, and achieve greater successes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the
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