As an example of its active international engagement, China has worked closely with the United States to build the Center of Excellence on Nuclear Security (COE) of China in suburban Beijing. As the largest, best equipped and most advanced facility of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, the COE will serve as a venue for a variety of international exchanges and cooperation programs.
In the nine-pronged report, China also summarized the achievements it has scored in enhancing the security of highly enriched uranium, strengthening the management of radioactive sources, combating illicit trafficking of nuclear material, boosting nuclear emergency response capability, improving nuclear-related cyber security and establishing a radiation environment monitoring system.
A LEADING ROLE
The report came as leaders and envoys from 52 countries and four international organizations are gathering in Washington for the 2016 NSS. In the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels and amid reports that the suicide bombers involved were originally considering an attack on a nuclear site in Belgium, nuclear security has taken on an extra layer of urgency.
In a sign of its firm commitment to nuclear security, China has participated in all the previous three summits at the top level. Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the third NSS in The Hague in 2014, and his predecessor, Hu Jintao, attended the first in Washington in 2010 and the second in Seoul in 2012.
As the upcoming fourth NSS will be the last in its current format, Xi is expected to put forth a set of practical proposals on continuously firming up global nuclear security in the post-NSS era.
After the summit process concludes, said the report, China will continue to actively take part in the international nuclear security process, help strengthen the international system, and make fresh contributions to achieving common nuclear security for all.
Commenting on China' s nuclear security efforts, Khammar Mrabit, director of the IAEA's Nuclear Security Office, said in a recent interview with Xinhua that China has taken effective steps in improving nuclear security both at home and abroad and is thus contributing to the common good of the world.
At a briefing on Tuesday, Laura Holgate, a special assistant to U.S. President Barack Obama and a senior director at the U.S. National Security Council, spoke highly of the Beijing COE project and China's leadership in the nuclear security area.
"We're really quite encouraged by the leadership that China is beginning to show in the nuclear security realm, not only in managing its own material but in creating a platform for cooperation regionally and internationally through the Center of Excellence that it's been carrying out," she said.
For Ali Abdul Nabi, a former vice president of the Egyptian Nuclear Power Plants Authority, China has played a significant role in international cooperation on nuclear security and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
China' s role, he commented in an interview with Xinhua, stems from its responsibility as a major country to protect the peoples of the world from nuclear threats.
