(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-25 10:49

Westinghouse's multi-billion-dollar contract to build four nuclear power generating units in China using its third-generation technologies is worth more than its face value.

And Westinghouse is not the only beneficiary.

The United States nuclear industry will benefit. As some in the Bush administration have observed, the deal will pave the way for its coveted revival. No wonder US Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman was quoted as saying it was the most exciting day in the history of US nuclear industry when the memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing.

The contract is expected to create thousands of American jobs and contribute to correcting the huge imbalance in bilateral trade.

It is good for Westinghouse, the Chinese and US nuclear industries, and the US as a whole that pragmatic thinking at last prevailed and enabled the all-win outcome.

While pointing their fingers at China for its unfavorable trade balance, some shortsighted American politicians have tended to turn their eyes away from the real stumbling block. It is their own abusive politicization that has prevented American businesses from substantial commercial success in the Chinese market.

China wants to build dozens of new nuclear power plants in the near future, to increase power supply and reduce pollutant discharge from fossil fuel.

American firms have a good chance to obtain a decent share of that large cake. They have technologies fitting Chinese needs.

Technological embargos on the US' part will not work because there are other countries capable of providing similar alternatives.

While the US' absence from the Chinese nuclear scene will not substantially set back China's schedule of nuclear development, it will definitely further undermine US competitiveness in the market.

That the Westinghouse contract ultimately survived the difficult delivery opens a market where the sky is the limit.