National Security, Incomplete.

For those keeping score, Capitalism has improved its grade point average:

Canberra’s plan to supply uranium to China alarms weapons critics.

Australia and Canada face criticism for trying to sell uranium to China following Beijing’s warning that it is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States.

Both countries insist the proposed sales are legal under international law, but critics have urged a rethink after last week’s belligerent comments from China’s Major-General Zhu Chenghu.

He said that if war broke out with the US over Taiwan, China would destroy “hundreds” of US cities with nuclear weapons.

Canada and Australia hold more than two-thirds of the world’s uranium reserves and are anxious to cash in on a tripling of the commodity’s price over the past few years. [The Age]

China’s struggle with its own behemoth — capitalism for one-billion-plus people — requires meeting projected domestic demands for energy, and nuclear power plants are the answer:

Judging by the standards of supply and demand, the deal makes complete sense. China is expected to build 40 to 50 nuclear power plants over the next two decades and needs uranium to fuel them. Australia has it. China’s Pacific neighbor is sitting on 41 percent of the world’s easily extractable uranium.

Critics of the deal believe that Australia will be seen as contributing to China’s military program, since China will no longer need to choose between its military and its domestic energy supply when choosing what to do with its stockpiles of nuclear material —

“Australia pins all its hopes on the nuclear nonproliferation treaty which both [China and Australia] are signatory to,” says James Courtney, a nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace. But “if things turn ugly over Taiwan, China could well decide to pull out of the NPT, and other than declaring war on China there is no way that you could get that uranium out.”

Mr. Noonan [campaign officer on nuclear issues at the Australian Conservation Foundation] cautions that there is no way of identifying “my uranium” from “your uranium” once it has left these shores.

“Once the Australian yellowcake mixes with Chinese uranium, we won’t be able to keep tabs on what is ours and what is not. In any case once China gets our uranium it could easily free up its own stockpiles for military use, and then Australia would be seen as being complicit in its military program,” he says. [The Christian Science Monitor]

— but others think the fear is pointless, given the fact that China’s estimated existing stockpile is enough for 2000 nuclear weapons.

Apparently, the existing stockpile isn’t enough to ensure domestic stability by supplying the nation’s energy needs.

The improved grade point average for Capitalism follows other recent improvements, such as China’s securing of deals for natural resources in Latin America and Canada — compounded points are given for Canada’s uranium and oil deals with China — and promises non-stop improvement, possibly requiring a new category above the A+ range, as more nations flock to the Chinese market.

Analysts have yet to determine what grade, if any, should be established above the A+ range and are awaiting final results; some even believe that grades for National Security will steadily improve with the improvement of Capitalism’s showing, though a few are skeptical of such analyses.