China delays payments to IAEA amid Fukushima water release

Beijing may be withholding 2nd-largest contribution share to apply pressure

20231122N IAEA Headquarters

As of Sept. 22, China was the only member of the U.N. Security Council to have not contributed any money to the IAEA this year. © Reuters

TAKAYUKI TANAKA, Nikkei staff writer

VIENNA -- China has been delaying its contributions to the International Atomic Energy Agency this year, having withheld all payments as of September and delivering only half as of early November.

Some Western diplomatic sources in Vienna, home to the IAEA, see the move as an attempt by China to apply pressure to oppose Japan's release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which the IAEA approved in July.

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