U.S. move on war worries China

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, SEPT. 25. The United States decision to take the war against terrorism into Afghanistan has raised concerns in China which has strategic interests in the Central Asian region.

China's ``oil security'' is one such strategic concern. The official Chinese People's Daily newspaper quoted Mr. Zhu Xinghshan, deputy director in the Energy Research Centre, as saying that the September 11 terrorist attacks had provided the U.S. a ``pretext'' to ``enter'' Central Asia. Mr. Zhu said the American entry would ``complicate'' an ``originally simple'' environment.

This, he said, will be of far-reaching significance for the supply of oil to China. ``China has to reconsider its strategy of oil security and stave off risks...'' he said, pointing out that Beijing imported 46.2 per cent of its total oil requirements from West Asia in 1999. As much as 64 per cent of all China's oil purchases passed through the Straits of Malacca.

According to Mr. Zhu, in view of these ``insecure factors'', China had thought in terms of laying pipelines through Central Asia and an agreement for this had been reached with Russia. But since the terrorist attacks, some ``changes'' may have to be made, he was quoted as saying. Countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are well-placed to play a frontline role in the American campaign against terrorism and the forthright comments made by the Chinese official lay bare the issues of concern to Beijing.

Writing in the International Herald Tribune today, Mr. Robyn Lim, a scholar of international relations, argued that China had concerns which extended beyond Afghanistan.

``While China shares Russian fears of a fundamentalist spillover into Central Asia and Xinjiang, it is willing to dally with the Taliban to try and limit support for the Uighurs. China will not support any infringement on Afghanistan's sovereignty, mostly because it worries about precedents being set for Tibet and Taiwan,'' he argued.

``China must also be concerned that Pakistan is starting to rebuild its alliance with the United States. The original alliance in the early 1950s was pointed at China as well as the Soviet Union.

In particular, Beijing would not wish to see permanent U.S. access to Pakistan's Indian Ocean ports,'' Mr. Lim added. In a separate development, China has said that the United Nations should ``play an important role'' in global efforts to ``prevent and combat'' all forms of terrorist activity. Speaking at the United Nations, Mr. Wang Yingfan, China's permanent representative to the U.N., referred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which had ``seriously undermined regional peace and stability''.

``Rampant and unchecked activities by terrorists, separatists and the extremists have caused more and more damage and posed a new challenge to world peace and security,'' Mr. Wang was quoted as saying.

He argued that it was an ``indisputable fact'' that the overwhelming majority of today's conflicts took place in underdeveloped countries and regions. ``Extreme poverty has put a strong grip on the economic development and social progress of those countries and regions, causing regional disturbances and even armed conflicts,'' he said.

``The international community, therefore, must strive to remove the root causes of these problems and make earnest efforts to help developing countries to solve the more fundamental issue of economic backwardness - a primary catalyst for conflicts,'' Mr. Wang maintained.

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Section  : International
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