- After months of near total apathy, China has decided
- finally - to abandon its "no comment" diplomacy and join forces
with the other powers in the United Nations Security Council (France, Russia
and Germany) in a collective effort to put an end to the US occupation
of Iraq.
-
- Last week, China's foreign minister stated that his country
would support a new resolution "provided that the UN is allowed a
key role in the reconstruction of Iraq with a clear timetable for a quick
transfer of power to the Iraqi people". This statement by China's
chief of diplomacy marked the end of two years of almost total indifference
towards the situation in the Middle East.
-
- Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, China
has taken a low profile in the international arena, trying to exploit America's
war on terrorism to its own advantage. The September 11 attacks provided
an opportunity to ease US pressure on Beijing, which the Bush administration
regarded at the beginning as a major challenge to America's global hegemony.
-
- In addition, armed with US support, China launched its
own war on terrorism. Muslim Uighurs, calling for an independent state
in the northwestern province of Xinjiang or "Eastern Turkestan",
were heavily suppressed.
-
- The Chinese government tried also to present the Uighurs'
aspirations for independence as part of a network of "international
Islamic terror", with funding from Al Qaida, training in Pakistan-controlled
Kashmir and combat experience in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
-
- Yet, the US victory in Iraq disturbed China's political
agenda and awakened it to the bitter conclusion that the US might now control
enough oil to blackmail Beijing over issues of disagreement, such as political
reform, Taiwan and North Korea.
-
- Throughout the 1970s and 1980s China was isolated from
the global economy and, hence, had not been affected by the dramatic events
of the world oil market. It had also shown total indifference to the fluctuations
of oil prices in the international market because internal prices were
fixed through strong state control and domestic supplies were sufficient
to satisfy local demands.
-
- But, since 1993 China has moved from being self sufficient
to a net oil importer. Concerns over oil security are increasingly influencing
China's diplomatic and strategic calculations. The quest for oil has taken
Beijing as far afield as North Africa and Latin America. Oil demands are
also affecting China's attitudes toward US policies from Eurasia to the
Middle East to North and West Africa.
-
- China's oil consumption has risen from 2.1 million barrels
a day (b/d) a decade ago to 4.6 million b/d currently and is expected to
increase by between one to three million b/d annually. Energy experts expect
China will import about four million b/d in 2010. This growth in oil demand
has rendered China as vulnerable as other industrial nations to unexpected
events affecting the global oil market.
-
- China has started looking for external resources to satisfy
its oil requirements. The abundance, proximity and quality of Middle Eastern
oil is particularly attractive for China. Hence, in 1997, Beijing singed
a deal to develop the Al Ahdab oil field in central Iraq and the following
year it began negotiations for the Al Halfayah field. The two Iraqi deals
were hindered by the UN sanctions, forcing China to look for other resources.
-
- Therefore, in September 1999, it approached Saudi Arabia
and struck a deal by which China allowed Saudi companies to use its refinery
facilities in return for limited access to Saudi Arabia's oil and gas sector.
-
- Not surprisingly, Chinese efforts to develop trading
relations with oil producers of the Gulf led to a clash of interests with
the US. Since the mid 1990s China realised that US hegemony in the Middle
East could be threatening to its national interests and the quest for oil
supplies.
-
- Hence, it opposed US policies towards Baghdad and Tehran
and called for an early lifting of the UN sanctions against Iraq. To counteract
Washington's strategy aimed at controlling the Gulf, China used arms sales
to forge closer links with the region. Currently, it is considered a prime
alternative for Western weaponry by countries attempting to offset Israel's
military superiority.
-
- For China, these arms sales decrease the deficit from
large oil purchases in its balance of payments.
-
- The US responded with a carrot and stick approach. Washington
stepped up the pressure on Beijing accusing it of tempting oil producers
by increased deliveries of weapons of mass destruction and the means to
deliver them, something China has categorically denied.
-
- On the other hand, the US has tried, unsuccesfully, to
bring China to the stockpiling system of the International Energy Agency,
a Western oil-consuming club established to counteract the influence of
OPEC.
-
- Instead, China has chosen to follow an independent policy,
preferring to co-operate with the Arab oil-producing countries to secure
its oil needs.
-
- As China's industrial power base expands, its dependence
on foreign oil grows and, subsequently, its policies and interests come
more into collision with those of the US.
-
- This explains China's discomfort with the US domination
of Iraq's oil and also the timing of its decision to speak up against the
US occupation in Iraq.
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- http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/opinion.asp?ArticleID=98641
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