Official Chinese media have given considerable coverage to the growing tension between Washington and Moscow. A headline in Friday's People's Daily asks "At What Direction is the Russian Missile Test Targeted?" After noting that "Russia has expressed strong opposition to U.S. plans to extend its missile defense shield to Poland and the Czech Republic," the article concludes that "the answer is self-evident."
People's Daily also ran a series of commentaries in May on what it characterizes as the "saliva war" between the United States and Russia. The paper takes a shot at American democracy in this commentary published May 23:
…ever since the end of the Cold War, Washington has been methodically containing Russia… the "jungle law" still plays a role in the management of international affairs. Doesn't this reveal that the self-proclaimed democracy by some powers is in fact a crippled democracy?
And a May 22nd commentary cautions that the U.S. missile shield is likely to result in a "wrong distribution of resources":
…throughout U.S. history, allies and enemies switch roles, as many of today's U.S. enemy target[sic] such as Noriega, Hussein and Bin Laden were once recipients of U.S. support.
Further, a May 18th opinion piece brings China into the equation and, alongside Russia, China is portrayed as a victim of American missile defense:
Although the U.S. reason for seeking overseas anti-missile bases is to prevent or stem missile attacks by the DPRK and Iran, the existing layout is, nevertheless, targeted directly and entirely at both Russia and China, and this is precisely the reason it has aroused the strong opposition of Russia.
A Chinese General reviews Russia's Pacific Fleet at Peace Mission 2005.
China and Russia have been working to forge a closer military alliance. In 2005, the two held their first ever joint military exercises as part of Peace Mission 2005, which was to be followed by more joint exercises under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Iran--an unambiguous target of American missile defense efforts--was granted observer status to the SCO in 2005. At the SCO's 2006 summit, in a thinly veiled criticism of the United States, Ahmadinejad called for closer regional cooperation: "We need a strong powerful organization to protect us from unreasonable outside interference."
Were Iran to acquire full membership, it would not only come under the formal protection of the SCO, but it would also form an axis with Russia and China that might serve as a geopolitical counterweight to the United States in resource-rich Eurasia.
But the relationships between Russia, China, and the United States are complex and fluid. At the time of Peace Mission 2005, observers noted that the joint Sino-Russian exercises not only sent a warning to the United States but also presented an opportunity for Beijing and Moscow to inform each other of their respective military capabilities.
In asserting that last week's missile test by Russia was meant to send a signal to the United States, People's Daily may have neglected the distinct possibility that the test was also meant to send a message to Beijing.
