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Red China backs the mullahs

April 21, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

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The Bush administration should challenge China on its overtures to Iran.

China and Iran are on the verge of strengthened economic and military cooperation. According to a news report, Iran hopes to join the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization as early as this summer and thereby improve its ties with both Russia and China. If the situation doesn’t change, reports Heritage’s John Tkacik, “there is little hope of walking Iran back from the brink.”

China has always maintained a close relationship with Iran’s mullahs, John Tkacik explains. The communist country is one of Iran’s largest weapons suppliers, after Russia, and continues to provide them with nuclear technology and other dangerous tools. And recently, China has been at the forefront of tactics to delay any international action on Iran’s burgeoning nuclear threat, insisting that the UN Security Council not take up the question.

Perhaps most ominously, Tkacik continues, Iran’s continued contravention of its own international agreements comes with China’s stamp of approval. Just before Iran restarted its nuclear program earlier this year, the country’s deputy foreign minister met with the Chinese foreign minister in Beijing. Officially, this was to brief the Chinese government “about the views and considerations of the Iranian side.” But one Washington commentator says that in fact, “Tehran cleared its action with Beijing.”

“Beijing’s policies appear grounded in a strategic calculation that an alignment with Iran is in Chinese interests,” Tkacik writes. To make sure this doesn’t become an ugly situation, he concludes, “the Bush Administration should cease pretending that China’s involvement in Iranian nuclear weapons negotiations has been constructive and publicly question China’s motives.”

Clearing up another liberal myth

Ever since the immigration debate started picking up steam a few months back, those who have opposed rewarding illegal immigrants for unlawfully entering the country have been smeared by pro-amnesty liberals as “anti-immigrant.” According to this storyline, “the rule of law” is some sort of racist, bigoted code word used by people reflexively opposed to all immigration. This is hogwash.

A new MyHeritage.org Myth Buster cuts through all the noise: “Legal immigration, which helped form our country, is a vital mechanism for revitalizing our economy and our nation. Opposition to amnesty and support for better enforcement of immigration law is based on principled respect for the rule of law and the desire to improve border security and not to create incentives for future illegal immigration.”

Help expand the conservative movement

In honor of the Resource Bank meeting (see below), MyHeritage.org is kicking off a new program to expand the conservative movement: we’d like to challenge each of our readers to sign up five of their friends to receive MyHeritage.org e-mails.

We started MyHeritage.org to take the conservative movement to the next level. And that can happen with your help: when informed Americans get the facts on today’s most important issues, undiluted by pre-processed media spin. So forward this e-mail to five of your friends today.

Heritage coordinates the conservative movement

The Heritage Foundation’s Resource Bank Meeting, an annual gathering of conservative organizations from around the world, got underway yesterday in Colorado Springs, CO. More than 500 policy experts from 40 different countries, elected officials, and activists will gather to discuss ways to promote conservative reforms, limited government and free markets.

There’s a lot of good stuff on the meeting agenda (link in PDF):

  • Heritage’s Ron Utt and blogger Ed Morrisey participate in a discussion of why big government cannot be the answer to our problems, especially given the failings exposed by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
  • Heritage’s Ronald Reagan Fellow Edwin Meese joins The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and others to discuss the possibilities for limiting the growth of government
  • Bob Moffit, director of Heritage’s Center for Health Policy Studies, joins a panel discussion on creating a consumer-based health care system like that recently introduced in Massachusetts
  • And much more

In other news

  • The number of workers filing for unemployment benefits declined again last week. The AP reports that this is a “sign that employers are feeling better about the business climate.” If Congress were to renew (or, better yet, make permanent) the 2003 tax cuts and prevent a large tax hike, businesses would surely feel even better about their long-term prospects.
  • The White House personnel shakeup continued this week as Press Secretary Scott McClellan resigned and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove dropped his policy responsibilities to focus full-time on this year’s elections.
  • Tuesday’s e-mail, citing a Heritage paper, stated that the Senate’s emergency spending bill included, among many wasteful items, 156 pork projects held over from last year. That figure was based on an earlier version of the bill, which has since been changed. Our thanks to Heritage’s Alison Frasier for noting the change to both the legislation and the Heritage analysis.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.