China has become a force for instability

US policymakers are taking a closer look at the People’s Republic of China. Instead of being a force for stability as its advocates argue, the PRC has become the opposite.

Has Beijing really been an ally in the war on terrorism? It’s difficult – if not impossible – for any US official to say that it has.

China’s internal conditions point to long-term instability. The PRC government has conditioned the people under its control to expect more and more, but is delivering less and less. Its economic power is severely overestimated.

Beijing is destabilizing its neighbors, supporting retrograde elements in Burma, implicitly threatening democratic India with its nuclear missile force, massing hundreds of missiles on the coast against Taiwan, and claiming and militarily occupying islands and reefs claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines in a bid to control the South China Sea. Its unprecedented military buildup is worrying next-door neighbors Russia, India, and Japan.

Even in far-flung Sudan, the PRC is arming, training and equipping the Islamist regime that is crushing the Christian population in the south, while in Venezuela it reportedly has sent special forces units to help the Chavez regime.

The PRC is the world’s number one proliferator of weapons of mass destruction, having provided missiles and nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, which threatens war on South Korea and the United States. The Beijing-Pyongyang nuclear axis now has prompted Australia and Japan to consider building their own nuclear missile forces.

The US must warn Beijing – now – that its actions are threatening to international stability and world peace. The Bush Administration should reject the ambiguous positions of its predecessor that have emboldened the PRC, and specifically draw the line for all to see, so that Beijing won’t miscalculate and cross it.