The United States should oppose the transaction (nuclear reactor sale) in its current form and pressure China to reverse course, writes Ashley J. Tellis in a new paper “The China-Pakistan Nuclear “Deal”: Separating Fact From Fiction,” published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Among the key findings Ashley writes that”Unlike the secret Sino–Pakistani agreement, the U.S.-India deal was publicly debated in both countries. When China joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2004, it agreed not to sell nuclear material to non-nuclear-weapon states that do not accept full-scope safeguards. A sale to Pakistan violates those terms. While the United States requested a special waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group to sell nuclear material to India, China has given no indication that it has such plans for Pakistan.”

Asley argues that Washington has successfully pressured Beijing—both multilaterally and bilaterally—to halt nuclear sales to Pakistan, in the past. He writes “The record of the last decade suggests that the United States has been successful in impeding problematic Chinese nuclear sales to Pakistan whenever it has remonstrated with Beijing at very high levels of government in both capitals,” Tellis writes. “There is no reason why President Obama cannot sustain this record of American achievement if he invests time and attention on this issue, given the emphasis he has placed on managing nuclear proliferation.”

“The integrity of the global nonproliferation system requires an orderly and coordinated process for managing change—which the NSG provides—and China, as a member of that group, should be permitted to consummate its prospective deal with Pakistan only if it first secures an NSG exemption from the current guidelines,” he adds.