Tuesday, April 13, 2010
china confidential
Again, China Disappoints US on Iran Nukes
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Again, China disappoints the United States on the Iran nuclear issue. The cooperation pledge was just a show, as China Confidential reported yesterday.
Click here for the news. China says dialogue and negotiations, not pressure, are the best ways of dealing with Iran.
Fact is, China does not fear a nuclear-armed Iran, seeing it as a useful counter to the U.S.Nearly four years ago, China Confidential explained the Chinese position as follows:
Iran, in addition to being China's second largest oil supplier, after Saudi Arabia, is China's main strategic ally in the Middle East--and a key to reducing US military and economic power in the region and across the world. This is why China has supplied Iran with arms, supported it diplomatically in its high-stakes nuclear standoff with the US, and sponsored close cooperation with it in the increasingly important (but, in the US, largely overlooked) Shanghai Cooperation Organization, while also investing staggering sums in Iranian oil and gas deals--from refineries to exploration. Iran helps to fuel China's political ascent as well as its economic rise.
As the US, in China's eyes, is the only country capable of blocking its quest for long-term global dominance, anything that weakens or diminishes the US--short of seriously hurting its consumption of Chinese exports, because one does not want to kill the golden goose before its time--is good for China. Frustrating a US push for sanctions against Iran unless it halts its nuclear enrichment program contributes nicely to a steady erosion of US power, prestige, and influence
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