United Press International,
WASHINGTON: Recent joint military exercises between Russia and China have prompted fears that a new axis is emerging in Asia.
There is a real possibility of a sharp deterioration in Sino-American relations, Igor Zevelev, Washington bureau chief for Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency told United Press International.
If the Bush administration misinterpreted Chinese signals of self-assertion as belligerent expansionism, then the prospect of a new hostility between the United States and China reminiscent of the Cold War was not far off, he said.
Zevelev was speaking after a panel last week at Washington's conservative Heritage Foundation. The panel looked at Russia and China's recent joint military maneuvers on China's Shandong peninsula.
The Russian and Chinese governments described the 'Peace Mission 2005' joint military maneuvers, the first large-scale omens the two nations have ever held together from Aug. 18-25, as an anti-terrorism exercise. Coming at the same time as Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and New Orleans, the maneuvers received relatively little attention in the U.S. media.
“The scale of the operation suggests something more than anti-terrorism, as was claimed,” said Stephen Blank, professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, in a statement to the conference.
The war games involved nearly 10,000 troops including 1,800 Russian military personnel, scores of advanced aircraft including Russian TU-95 and TU-22 heavy bombers, which can carry cruise missiles, and army, navy, air force, marine, airborne, and logistics units from both countries.
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