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The Sino-Saudi Connection

(Commentary) Gal Luft and Anne Korin - Iran is now the second largest supplier of China's oil. In return, the PRC has sold ballistic-missile components to Iran as well as air-, land-, and sea-based cruise missiles, giving Tehran the capability to attack U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf. More significantly, China has provided Iran with key ingredients for the development of nuclear weapons. But the biggest prize in the region is Saudi Arabia, the country that holds a quarter of global oil reserves, and that is today China's number-one foreign supplier of crude oil. As far back as the mid-1980s, China began to engage in military commerce with Riyadh, selling it 36 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, building two missile bases south of the Saudi capital, and deploying Chinese security personnel to maintain them.
2004-03-25 00:00:00
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