After Iraq, US may turn to China: Analysts Press Trust of India

The Hindustan Times. 26 March 2003

• State Council think-tank member Tong Gang, the report says, saw the conflict as the first salvo in Washington’s bid to build a new world order under US domination.
• The report says It is understood the LGNS believes the US will take on North Korea—still deemed a lips-and-teeth ally of China’s—as early as this summer.

The Iraq war has convinced the Chinese Communist Party leadership that some form of confrontation with the United States could come earlier than expected, media analysts say.

Chinese strategists also believe that if the US can score a relatively quick victory over Baghdad, it will soon turn to Asia to control it and begin efforts to tame China.

Beijing has begun to fine-tune its domestic and security policies to counter the perceived threat of US—neo-imperialism. CNN’s senior China analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam said.

Alarm bells about a deteriorating international situation, the report says, have been sounded by the Chinese Community Party’s secretive Leading Group on National Security (LGNS), which coordinates policies in areas including diplomacy, defence and energy.

The LGNS has since early this month called a series of meetings to discuss ways to handle the Iraqi crisis. In the near term, of course, the focus is on the impact of rising oil prices—and on the need to build up a strategic oil reserve that can last at least 30 days, it says.

However, the report says, economic concerns are not the top priority. Given the likelihood oil prices will drop after the resolution of the conflict, some government economists are saying the war’s impact on this year’s economic performance will be insubstantial.

Of more concern to the LGNS, the report says, is the perceived expansion of American unilateralism if not neo-imperialism.

People’s Daily commentator Huang Peizhao pointed out last Saturday, US moves in the West Asia [the Middle East] have served the goal of seeking world-wide domination.

State Council think-tank member Tong Gang, the report says, saw the conflict as the first salvo in Washington’s bid to build a new world order under US domination.

Chinese strategists, it adds, think particularly if the US can score a relatively quick victory over Baghdad, it will soon turn to Asia—and begin efforts to tame China.

The report says It is understood the LGNS believes the US will take on North Korea—still deemed a lips-and-teeth ally of China’s—as early as this summer.

These developments, according to the report, have prompted China to change its long-standing geopolitical strategy, which still held true as late as the 16th CCP Congress last November.