Word: iran
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...world's nuclear standoff with Iran is ratcheting ever upward. On Feb. 8, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (no diplomat he) matter-of-factly announced that Iran would soon begin enriching uranium for use in a "medical reactor." That means China will have to answer the central question that confronts it, which was embedded within Yang's diplo-speak: What actually is China's long-term interest in Iran? (See the top 10 Ahmadinejad-isms...
...Beijing has what it used to call "core interests" - issues that stand above and beyond the rest. Taiwan is one. Another - a recent product of its economic surge - is long-term access to the oil, gas and minerals needed to fuel the country's growth for decades to come. Iran, from whom Beijing now buys a tick over 400,000 barrels a day (about 14% of China's total oil imports), is clearly part of that future. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently called out Beijing in public to get off the fence and sign...
...Korea with nukes is less destabilizing than a North Korea in chaos, with tens of thousands of impoverished souls pouring across its border into China. But Beijing knows no one is going to attack North Korea - knows that in its heart and soul. It knows no such thing about Iran. Prior to Barack Obama's summit meeting with Hu Jintao last year, two U.S. diplomats quietly slipped into Beijing and, in secret, reinforced the obvious: There's this other country in the region called Israel and, well, we're just not sure what they might do. (See what Ahmadinejad...
...facilities is not known. What's known is that Beijing appeared to be unmoved by what it was told. Yang's speech earlier this month and several public statements by other Chinese officials similar to it still show little appetite in Beijing for U.N.-induced sanctions that might affect Iran's oil and gas industry...
...when Clinton went public in isolating Beijing earlier this month, it was clear the diplomatic game had changed, and not in China's favor. Beijing had always had a partner in pushing back against the West's desire for tough sanctions against Iran: Moscow. The Russians don't need Tehran's oil and gas, but they have significant economic interests in Iran, and Vladimir Putin, much more than Hu Jintao & Co., had very much been in the business of sticking a thumb in the eye of the U.S. whenever he could (the default position of pretty much...