Beijing's decision to suspend approvals for new nuclear plants and launch a comprehensive safety review of existing facilities and those under construction casts doubt on the country's long-term atomic energy strategy, mainland analysts say.
The move was prompted by Japan's nuclear power plant crisis which has dealt a severe blow to public confidence in nuclear safety. Coming less than a week after Beijing's ambitious nuclear power plan for the next five years was adopted by the National People's Congress, it will delay the expansion programme in the short term, the analysts say.
China was one of the first countries to decide to review nuclear policies, but analysts say Beijing has yet to address mounting safety concerns and fix safety loopholes.
Citing China's use of state-of-the-art technology at new nuclear facilities, mainland authorities insist that a crisis like that in Japan will not occur on the mainland.
But one of the risks topping the list of concerns is human error, which they say contributed decisively to past nuclear accidents, such as Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986.
Sceptical of nuclear experts' confidence in nuclear power technology, Zhao Yamin , a former official at the environment ministry's nuclear safety centre says the human factor must not be overlooked in China's nuclear expansion plan.