Our political and military focus has of necessity been on Iraq, but communist Chinese behavior has an impact on our policies in a variety of areas including the Middle East.

Red China is on an arms production and purchasing binge, including the installation of hundreds of missiles opposite democratic Taiwan, which Beijing considers only a renegade province of the mainland. Thus far America and the European Union have maintained an embargo on certain types of military sales to China – a result of Tiananmen Square – but E.U. resolve is melting in the face of Chinese money. Taiwan’s position is increasingly precarious. Most countries won’t sell Taiwan military equipment, making its reliance on America for protection a major factor in American diplomacy both in the region and closer to home.

China has worked hard to enhance its position in the Caribbean, Central, and South America, traditionally areas of American influence. For the first time, Chinese troops are participating in a peacekeeping mission in the Western Hemisphere, on the ground in Haiti. Chinese officials simply claim to be exercising international responsibility, but Haiti is one of the few countries to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The point isn’t lost on the Haitians or the Taiwanese.

Chinese monetary policy, with its overvalued currency, is contributing to the weakness of the American dollar and our mounting trade deficit.

China’s tremendous economic growth, plus the inefficiency of its oil industry, has turned China from a net oil exporter to the world’s primary importer. This, even more than Western nerves over OPEC policy or oil production from Iraq, is the key reason for the hike in oil prices, and it isn’t likely to change soon. This desire to secure its energy sources for the future is, in part, driving Chinese policy toward Iran.

China, though not a signatory to the Missile Technology Control Regime, or MTCR, had agreed not to aid Iran’s missile program. A promise honored in the breech, according to American officials, who say dozens of Chinese companies and individuals are providing components and technology for Iran’s Shihab-3 and -4 programs. They say the components and technology also aim at helping Iran develop a weapons-of-mass destruction warhead. Exports to Iran go through North Korea and a State Department spokesman has called China an “unrepentant proliferator.” Twenty-eight Chinese companies have been sanctioned by America for selling missile and WMD components to Iran.

China also has a brewing Central Asian Muslim rebellion in its western provinces and desperately needs Iran to agree not to stoke the flames.

China is thus opposed to sending the issue of Iranian nuclear capabilities to the Security Council. It is opposed to sending the issue of North Korean nuclear capabilities to the Security Council. It is opposed to sending the issue of Darfur to the Security Council.

Darfur?

Southern Sudan has oil resources and China has a tremendous investment in extracting it. The deal was made with the Arab-dominated Muslim government in Khartoum, and so China has an interest in protecting the government as it prosecutes a vicious war against the Christian and animist south, where the oil is. By extension, China has an interest in protecting Khartoum’s genocidal behavior against the African Muslim area of Darfur.

All of this is by way of reminding ourselves that the world is interconnected in ways we think about and ways we don’t think about – it is the latter that gets us into trouble.

Ms. Bryen is director of special projects for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a nonprofit association in Washington.