KWIC Dec.28 China and Russia both made a response stronger than ever before to the military action unilaterally taken by the joint forces of Britain and the USA against Iraq. The Chinese diplomats and mass media pointed out that the joint action taken by Britain and the USA was in defiance of the basic norms of the United Nations Charter and the international standard. What was worth noting was that the Chinese representative to the United Nations made a direct criticism of the weapon inspection group leader Butler, saying that Butler's behavior was inglorious.

The Chinese diplomatic source told the KWIC reporter that the reason why China had made such a strong response was that China came to realize that the action of the USA was a challenge against the guiding ideology China had proposed after the cold war ended, on the world pattern as "a multipolar world with one superpower and several strong nations in it". In addition to admitting that the USA plays a leading role, to a certain degree, in the post-cold-war international relationships, this theory also emphasizes the "colorful" nature of the international politics and the indispensable position of China in the international community.

The important motive for China to propose the above-mentioned diplomatic guiding principle is to create a necessary international containing force that gives a check to the US hegemonic diplomacy, especially at the time such a diplomacy harms the national interest of China through its involvement in the issues of Taiwan and the South China Sea.

During this latest Persian Gulf crisis, the following movements of China are worth attention. China and Russia held such a highly identical attitude that the "inequilateral" nature once again presented itself in the China-US-Russia triangle. On the matters of this crisis, a hotline telephone" was used for the first time between the leaders of China and Russia. This demonstrated their contingency capability of dealing with the crisis. In comparison, the communications between China and the USA were handled only through "correspondence" though there was also a "hotline" system between these two countries.

Secondly, the criticism of Butler made by China and Russia indicated that after the end of the attack, these two countries hoped to bargain with Britain and the USA through exerting pressure and maximizing the effectiveness of the dialogue, in order to obtain the US support for China and Russia on the other security issues.

Lastly, China was more active than ever in the resolution of this crisis. It indicated that while continuing to follow the guiding principle of "hiding its capacities and biding its time", China adopted a more flexible general attitude in its foreign policy, which emphasizes that China should attempt and accomplish something ( Andrei Pinkov).

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