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China unlikely to veto Iraq war
resolution
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Having made clear its strong
preference for a political solution to the Iraqi crisis,
China is still likely to refrain from vetoing a new
United Nations resolution that paves the way for war - a
move consistent with its long-standing policy not to
take the lead in any international crisis.
Despite becoming more involved in recent years
in UN peacekeeping missions, China's priority remains
its economic expansion - and key to this is
strengthening ties with Washington.
Diplomats
here say that the pro-Washington tilt is Chinese
President Jiang Zemin's personal initiative and that his
priority is to ensure that nothing interferes with trade
- China is now running a record trade surplus of more
than US$100 billion with the United States.
Describing China's official positions on another
critical issue - the North Korean nuclear escalation -
US Secretary of State Colin Powell seemed confident
after a visit here about Beijing's quiet determination
to back US actions.
"I think they [the Chinese]
are anxious to play as helpful a role as they can," he
said during a news conference in Beijing this week.
"They prefer to play their role quietly but they have a
clear understanding of our desires and our interests."
China's official positions on the issues of Iraq
and North Korea could not be more different, and yet
Powell may have good reason to believe that Beijing
would not opt for a direct confrontation with Washington
on these matters. While Beijing insists that Iraq can
only be dealt with multilaterally through the United
Nations, it opposes US efforts to push for a UN Security
Council resolution condemning North Korea for breaching
its non-proliferation treaty obligations.
Jiang
has repeatedly voiced support for North Korea's demand
that the United States engage Pyongyang in bilateral
negotiations leading to a non-aggression treaty, making
it clear that this crisis is to be solved by Washington
unilaterally.
Although China is against both
North Korea's decision to kick out the International
Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors and to restart its
nuclear program, Beijing does not approve of any
sanctions against Pyongyang.
Not so with Iraq.
Although Foreign Minster Tang Jiaxuan told Powell that
China saw no need for new UN resolution on Iraq and
believed diplomatic energy should focus on forcing
Baghdad to disarm without war, Beijing warned Iraq
against its non-compliance with the UN resolutions.
Tang said the Chinese side had always held that
Resolution 1441 of the UN Security Council must be
implemented in a "comprehensive, sincere and precise
way" and Iraq should be more active and unconditional in
its all-around cooperation with the United Nations.
"Iraq's weapons of mass destruction must be completely
destroyed," Tang said.
So far, Beijing's
position has been that it opposes invasion and that the
sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of
Iraq should be respected. Now for the first time, China
has been bluntly saying that Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction must be completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, China's UN Ambassador Wang Yingfan
announced in New York that Beijing would study a new
US-British draft resolution declaring that Baghdad had
failed to take advantage of a final opportunity to
disarm.
As Beijing measures the impact of a
possible war in the Persian Gulf region, oil security
looms even larger than diplomacy. China must consider
the consequences for its growing dependency on imported
oil, if or when Iraq's oil exports come under US
control.
Since China became a net oil importer
in 1993, its imports have risen steeply and are now
essential to sustaining its high economic growth rate.
In 2002, imports rose 15 percent on the previous year.
Last year China imported 71 million tonnes of oil, half
of which came from the Middle East.
China has no
strategic reserves and is seriously worried that war in
Iraq would trigger an energy crunch. To avoid becoming
over-reliant on Gulf oil, it is pushing ahead with
long-term plans to contract oil and gas from Russia,
Indonesia, Central Asia and Australia.
While
Beijing continues to condemn the United States for its
hegemonic intentions, it in fact shares Western
interests in low oil prices and Washington's policies to
curb Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. China is also
keen to win business in Iraq if sanctions are lifted or
a new government embarks on a massive economic
reconstruction program.
China's stance on Iraq
has also changed remarkably over the past 10 years. A
decade ago, it abstained from voting on UN Security
Council Resolution 678 that authorized the use of force
against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait.
After
the Gulf War, Beijing wanted to lift sanctions quickly,
and end the work of the weapons inspectors.
During the administration of US president Bill
Clinton, China flouted the UN sanctions on Iraq by
sending a 70-strong delegation of officials amid
promises that China would work to lift sanctions and
restore civilian flights as quickly as possible.
Beijing signed agreements for oil explorations
and built a fiber-optic communications system for Iraq's
new air-defense network, which US and British planes
bombed.
Then last November, China went along
with the rest of the Security Council and voted in favor
of Resolution 1441.
China seems to prefer that
if the United States does attack Iraq, military action
is taken with the authorization of the United Nations
rather than without it, as happened with Kosovo and
Yugoslavia.
Jiang has stated that he shares the
views of French President Jacques Chirac, Russian
President Vladimir Putin, and German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, who want to use the United Nations to act as
a restraint on Washington.
But asked whether
that meant a new Chinese alliance with France, Germany
and Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue was
dismissive, saying peace was the common aspiration of
the international community.
(Inter Press
Service)
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