World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Nuclear Power Plant Going to Pakistan

China signed a contract to sell a nuclear power plant to Pakistan, the official New China News Agency said in a report about Beijing’s usually secretive nuclear technology transfers. “It is totally for peaceful purposes,” Premier Li Peng said after the signing ceremony for the 300,000-kilowatt nuclear power plant. This and other recent disclosures appeared to be part of a new policy to counter Western criticism of China’s secretive transfers of nuclear technology to Third World countries including Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Pakistan. Western governments are worried about military uses of the material. China’s legislature has agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, limiting transfers of nuclear materials.