Chinese state press blasts Libya strikes
by Staff Writers
Beijing March 23, 2011
Chinese state media on Wednesday blasted the UN-backed military strikes on Libya, saying they masked a self-interested grab by Western powers for oil and "world dominance."
The air assault "is primarily a political decision taken by a few Western powers, and the very first message it delivers is that these Western powers are still the judge and executioner on a global level," the Global Times said.
"The West has dominated the world for centuries, and clinging to world dominance still remains its major strategy," the state-run newspaper added in an editorial.
China has been increasingly critical of the military operation in Libya, despite not having used its UN Security Council veto to block the resolution approving it. Instead, it abstained from the vote.
The air strikes, led by the United States, France and Britain, began on Saturday under the resolution for a no-fly zone over war-torn Libya aimed at protecting civilians from the forces of leader Moamer Kadhafi as they battle rebels.
A Chinese government spokeswoman on Tuesday said the assault had caused civilian casualties and she called for an "immediate ceasefire," which added to mounting recent criticism in the country's government-controlled press.
"Most of the West's military and political intervention in the Middle East is tied to oil and its strategic position," the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's central print mouthpiece, said Wednesday.
"Iraq came under attack because of oil and Libya is also coming under attack because of oil," it said in a commentary published in the newspaper's overseas edition.
It also accused the West of seeking to control the world's strategic resources by force.
The paper's domestic edition said France's leading position in the multinational effort was driven by its own interests in Libya, its global position and President Nicolas Sarkozy's desire for re-election.
The Global Times said the West "should not have the right to dispose of any country at will, no matter how awful this country's situation may be."
"Western intervention against Libya should be strictly limited. Their excessive intervention must be condemned."
China, which faces frequent foreign criticism over its own human rights record and treatment of restive minority groups, consistently opposes moves deemed as interfering in the affairs of other countries.
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