Here we go again: The myth of the China-Iran Axis

IT may not be surprising, but certainly ironic, that some of the same foreign policy thinkers in Washington who had urged Americans to prepare for World War III - the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) in the aftermath of the attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 - are now pressing their compatriots to get ready for a new Cold War with China. American neoconservative media outlets who were leading GWOT advocates and, in that context, influential cheerleaders for the war in Iraq and other regime-change and nation-building projects in the Middle East, are now warning of Chinese plans to take over the Middle East and raising the spectre of a China-Iran Axis.

They argue that the recent signing of a 25-year "strategic partnership" between Beijing and Teheran, that includes plans for Chinese investment of several hundreds of million dollars in Iranian projects in return for a supply of Iranian oil, marked a momentous geostrategic development that would change the balance of power in the Middle East and strengthen the hands of those regional and global players who are ready to challenge US international position.

And apropos US global position, recall that before they turned into full-blown China-bashers, neoconservative intellectuals were contending that by gaining hegemony in the Middle East after the Iraq war, Washington could use its control of the oil resources there as leverage in its dealings with China, whose booming economy was becoming more reliant on energy imports. That would have supposedly ensured that Beijing would not become America's long-term global rival.