Wrong Time to Take a Stand
Like any other country, China acts in what it perceives to be its best interests. This story, then, has me wondering:
China on Tuesday joined voices opposing swift military action against Iraq, presenting another obstacle to U.S.-led plans to disarm the regime by force.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin called for a peaceful resolution to the standoff over Baghdad’s alleged biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs. ”Warfare is good for no one,” Jiang said.
Should China (or France or Russia, for that matter) use its veto against any UNSC force authorization veto, it could well spell the end of whatever little relevance the UN still has. That is, if the US-led Coalition goes on ahead with toppling Saddam, and if the coalition then puts forth a strong effort to make Iraq into a more civilized nation
Interesting, it could be pushback with regard to the DPRK, as well.
Yeah, I think China always abtains in these types of arguments. Just curious, have they ever vetoed anything that didn’t involve SE Asia or the Pacific basis? Say what you will about the Chinese, but foreign policy wise, they are pretty damned consistent.
In the history of the PRC sitting in the China slot on the UNSC, the PRC has actually utilized its veto, iirc, only ONCE.
Interestingly, it had to do w/ an extension of the UN presence in Macedonia.
The reason for this, however, was that Macedonia had just decided to recognize Taiwan over PRC for diplomatic purposes—the outcome of Taiwanese dollar diplomacy. So, China punished Macedonia in the only way it knew/could.
However, OTHER than that incident, I believe that China has never wielded the veto (although it has threatened it many times). So, I agree w/ Stephen, this is almost certainly a case of veto-rattling for negotiation points.
They are probably not to pleased with the performance of the enhancements (fiber-optics etc) that they’ve installed for the Iraq’s
China will not use its veto. US Chinese relations are the best they’ve ever been and the current Chinese leaders place greater value on those relations than ever before. If France vetos there is no need for China to veto and it will abstain. If France does not veto, China will not want to be the lone opposition and will again abstain.