China has since June hosted the leaders of North Korea, Myanmar and Iran, showing none of the West’s reluctance to deal with pariah states when its strategic interests are at stake, experts say.
China, under increasing pressure to play a role on the global stage commensurate with its economic might, could see its image sullied by welcoming three strongmen whose regimes are under international sanctions, they say.
However, close ties with Pyongyang, Tehran and the military junta in Myanmar — whose leader Than Shwe is in China this week — afford Beijing both access to key natural resources and a bit of diplomatic wiggle room, they add.
“Today, China is following its own path. It is integrating with the world on its own terms, while maintaining its autonomy and values,” said Xu Tiebing (許鐵兵), a professor of international relations at the Communication University of China. “It has decided to defend its fundamental interests without worrying too much about what the West thinks.”
China has rolled out the red carpet for the state visit by Than Shwe, calling Myanmar a “friendly neighbor” and saying its Nov. 7 election — a contest widely derided in the West — is an “important step” toward democracy.
“While Beijing is aware of the potentially devastating consequences some of its close allies can have on its image, it does not want to diminish the room to maneuver these countries can afford it on the global stage,” said Valerie Niquet, a China expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, said North Korea, Myanmar and Iran all had “tricky relations with the US and its European and Japanese allies.”
As a result, the three countries are “pawns in the bipolar chess game that China is playing with the United States,” Cabestan said.
Niquet, however, said Beijing’s strategy of being the key intermediary between its controversial allies and the West sometimes had limits.
“Washington now seems more skeptical about the positive role played by Beijing on the issue of North Korea,” which has not returned to stalled nuclear disarmament talks despite the efforts of host China, she said.
Beyond the complex diplomatic ties, China has a tangle of economic interests in the mix: Iran’s oil; major investments in Myanmar’s natural gas, teak, minerals and gems; a deal with North Korea to develop its Yellow Sea port Rajin; and arms sales to all three countries.
China is also extending its influence in those nations by building pipelines, roads and railways. In Myanmar, it is looking to secure access to the Indian Ocean.
As a result, Beijing “has a network of client states which are more or less dependent upon it, and which it would not want to jeopardize by betraying one of those states,” Niquet said.
“The extreme isolation of these countries — and consequently their deep dependence on Beijing, notably in the cases of North Korea and Myanmar — is an asset that China is not willing to give up,” Niquet said.
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