U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy

Abstract

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States faced a challenge in enlisting the full support of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in counterterrorism. This effort raised short-term policy issues about how to elicit cooperation and how to address China s concerns about military action (Operation Enduring Freedom). Longer-term issues have concerned whether counterterrorism has strategically transformed bilateral relations and whether China s support has been valuable and not obtained at the expense of other U.S. interests. The extent of U.S.-China counterterrorism cooperation has been limited, but the tone and context of counterterrorism helped to stabilize even if it did not transform the closer bilateral relationship pursued by President George Bush since late 2001. China s military, the People s Liberation Army (PLA), has not participated in the counterterrorism coalition. Still, for almost four years after the attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush and other administration officials tended to praise the PRC s diplomatic and other support for the war against terrorism. Since 2005, however, U.S. concerns about China s extent of cooperation in counterterrorism have increased. In September 2005, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick acknowledged that China and the United States can do more together in the global fight against terrorism after a good start, in his policy speech that called on China to be a responsible stakeholder in the world. The summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2005 and 2006 raised U.S. concerns. Since the summer of 2007, U.S. officials have expressed more concern about China-origin arms that have been found in the conflict involving U.S. forces in Afghanistan, as part of the broader threat posed by Iran and its arms transfers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 10, 2007
Accession Number
ADA473613

Entities

People

  • Shirley Kan

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Central Asia
  • Chemical Weapons
  • Cooperation
  • Counterterrorism
  • Department Of State
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Port Security
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.