Beijing not post-war 'victor' in Iraq

Analysts hailed the role China has played spearheading Iraq's post-war reconstruction and economic recovery Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, while rejecting allegations China has been a "winner" from the conflict.

A lot of focus has been paid in recent years to the rapid expansion of bilateral trade between China and Iraq driven by lucrative oil contracts.

Trade volume between China and Iraq soared nearly 34-fold to $17.5 billion from $517 million between 2002 and 2012, according to reports by Saudi Arabia-based Al Arabiya TV.

By contrast, trade between Iraq and the US increased only 5.6 times over the same period, reaching $3.8 billion in 2002, the report said.

Chinese oil companies are seeking opportunities in Iraq, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report last year could make Baghdad become the world's second-largest oil exporter by 2030.

China National Petroleum Corp. is currently developing three major oil fields in Iraq, namely Al-Ahdab, Rumaila and Halfya. The Al-Ahdab oilfield became operational in 2011 with a 3-million ton annual capacity, making it the first new oil project to start production in Iraq in 20 years.

Such a scenario has fueled allegations from some pundits that China has emerged as a "victor" by reaping benefits from the Iraq War. "We have liberated Iraq so that Chinese firms can extract its oil," US journalist Robert Kaplan opined in the Wall Street Journal last year.

But Shi Yinhong, a professor of International Relations and director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of China, denounced such claims as "totally baseless."

"Even if the Iraq War had never taken place, China's trade with the country would have nevertheless expanded rapidly. This is a natural result of China's economic rise. Beijing's trade with other countries, including those in the Middle East, has also grown rapidly," he told the Global Times.

"China can by no means be called a 'victor' of the Iraq War. As a matter of fact, the war has made it more difficult and risky for Chinese companies to conduct investment and business activities in Iraq," Shi added.

Li Weijian, director of the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times that the Iraq War opened a "Pandora's box" by inflaming sectarian violence.

"Iraqis have paid a steep price for the war in terms of rediscovering a balance in social governance," Li said.