[PEN-L:31592] US-China equilibrate

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A year after the Chinese sent an incredibly expensive spy plane back to the
USA in tiny bits, Jiang Zemin has just agreed with Bush to underwrite the
removal of nuclear weapons from North Korea. (This also protects North
Korea from US invasion).


He declined however to respond to Bush's public appeal to support the USA
in its unilateral threat to Iraq. These are the processes of equilibration
by which even Bush's hegemonic unilateralism gets contained in a
multi-lateral context. Why did Bush go public? We will have to guess at
present.



John Gittings, Guardian, 25 Oct:
> China has not publicly criticised the US-British draft resolutions,
> leaving France and Russia to make the running. There are only occasional
> comments by Chinese academics such as People's University professor Jin
> Canrong on Washington's "new imperialism".
>
> The question now is what kind of price Mr Jiang can exact for Chinese
> acquiescence - for, whatever the final resolution, everyone expects
> Beijing at least to abstain. Washington has already made a downpayment by
> listing the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist organisation
> - undercutting any criticism of Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang region.


Chris Burford

London