AS IRAN CREEPS ever so closer to becoming a nuclear power, it has been exposed as a transit nation for several of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers and a likely rest stop for several major players in al-Qaida. The Khomeinist mullahcracy has also played a large--but unacknowledged--role in the anti-American "insurgency" in Iraq. However, there is one aspect of the Iranian threat that has gone almost unnoticed: its longstanding ties to the People's Republic of China.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission found several instances of Communist China directly aiding Iran's nuclear-weapons program. Iranian front companies bought materials from Communist China for nuclear-weapons facilities. Roughly 50 Chinese experts are at the Saghand uranium mine, and several more experts from both the PRC and its North Korean satellite state supervised the installation of centrifuge equipment to enrich uranium at a plant near Isfahan.
Add the 2 tons of uranium the Communists sold to Iran in 1991, and what you have is an Iranian nuclear program aided at several key points by a willing ally in Beijing for at least 13 years. Included in the aid was helping Iran keep the program secret for more than a decade. Until Iran's nuclear ambitions were exposed in 2002 by an Iranian resistance group, Communist China made no effort to tell anyone about the intentions of its military client and ally--quite the opposite, in fact.
As for delivering those nukes, Communist China has sold missile technology to Iran for years. The most recent Communist contribution to Iran's missile development was a GPS-based navigation system that has vastly improved the accuracy of its 1,400-km-range Shihab-3 missile, a missile which can carry a nuclear warhead.
There have also been sales of missile parts, "dual-use" items, components of weapons of mass destruction, and other weapons to Iran for years. In some cases, Communist China even used its satellite in North Korea as a middleman for the sales, so as to avoid its own overly praised "export controls" (and U.S. sanctions).
While the Communists would certainly be happier if some of this information had not reached the West, they make no secret of their friendship for Iran. The mullahs are warmly greeted by the butchers in Beijing, and vice versa.
Why would Communist China be so eager to support a regime that is the most prolific sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East, and one of the most prolific in the world?
The answer is simple: the Communists prefer them to us. Communist China does not consider us a friend, and certainly not an ally. To the contrary, to Beijing, the United States is a present rival and likely future enemy.
Not strong enough to take us on themselves, they have resorted to using proxies to thwart us around the world. In the Middle East, they have ties--including arms sales--to Iran, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia. They also had ties to Baathist Iraq. However, the most extensive ties are to Iran.
The implications of this could not be more critical for the future of the War on Terror. Given the depth of Communist Chinese involvement in Iran's nuclear-weapons development--and open friendship with the Khomeinist regime--we cannot assume the same acquiescence we saw from the PRC on Iraq.
Should President Bush decide to take a tougher line against the mullahs--anything from greater support for the anti-mullah rebellion up to a military action--we have to be prepared for some response from Beijing, and act accordingly.
However, the alternative--attempting to appease the mullahs--would allow Communist China's Islamist beachhead to become the leading power in the region.
Furthermore, letting the pre-eminent sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East extract concessions from us--or even worse, letting them fool us and become a nuclear-armed regime--would send all the wrong signals to the other despotisms in the region, to say nothing of their long-suffering peoples.
Iran is the new geopolitical watermelon: the military advancement of the "Green" Islamic terrorist regime is fueled by "Red" China.
A policy of opposing one must oppose both to be successful. A policy that opposes neither will lead, ultimately, to defeat in the War of Terror. The sooner we recognize the links between our war against terrorism and Communist China's cold war against us, the sooner we will win both.
D.J. McGUIRE of Spotsylvania County is president and co-founder of the China e-Lobby, and the author of "Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror."