Profound changes in international relations since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, especially since the US-led war against Iraq without either a convincing excuse or United Nations (UN) authorization early this year, have brought about far-reaching changes and influences to China's security environment.

"The September 11 event has had an epoch-making significance upon international politics and the international strategic structure," said Lu Zhongwei, director of the Institute of Contemporary International Relations, at the Forum on International Politics and China's Strategy, which was held over the weekend and sponsored by the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China.

Under the banner of anti-terrorism, the United States has launched an aggressive anti-terror campaign across the world following the attacks.

The most important influence of the 2001 attacks is that they have changed the United States' security strategy and its means to deal with danger.

The US "pre-emptive attacks" theory, which Washington said was aimed at preventing potential threats to US national security, has provided itself with a pretext to launch military strikes against any country it does not like, putting the established UN mechanisms at the brink of collapse.

Washington's success in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the former Saddam Hussein regime was accused by the United States of having connections with terrorists and developing weapons of mass destruction, will inevitably encourage the superpower's tendency of intervention into other countries, leading to the deterioration of the overall international situation and the security environment facing China.

"The current world is not one in which all countries sit as equals, but one in which the United States stands head and shoulders above others," said Lu.

"But the struggle between major countries for their own influence and status in the international arena will never stop."

It is for certain, the United States wants to crack down on the increasingly rampant terrorist activities by launching an anti-terror war. But it cannot be ruled out that the United States has a real intention of pursuing more hegemony.

"It is predicted that the United States will still maintain its unilateralist behaviour for a long period in the future given that the current world structure, with the United States as the sole superpower and several powers existing side by side, has remained unchanged for a long time," said Wang Yizhou, deputy director of the Institute of World Economic and Political Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Although the possibility for world-scale wars is extremely slim, small-scale and regional conflicts will never stop.

"One of the most obvious characteristics of these regional conflicts is that they were and will be mainly situated on the Eurasian Continent, a region that borders China."

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular, the separatism activities of the Taiwan independence-seeking forces and foreign countries' interference in the issue, as well as China's dispute with Southeast Asian countries over ownership in the South China Sea, all possibly pose new challenges for China's security environment.

Despite facing more complicated international situations since September 11 and especially since the Iraq War, China's international security environment, however, has gained some improvement, according to Cai Wu, deputy head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Cai, who is also a concurrent professor at Renmin University of China, said: "A country's security environment is mainly based upon its national strength. And China's comprehensive national forces, and its political and economic clout in the international community, have been dramatically improved compared with not so long ago."

(China Daily September 30, 2003)