China drives U.S. nuke policy change

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. policy change regarding nuclear technology to India is a response to the potential of China as a world power, the Christian Science Monitor says.

President Bush this week told visiting Indiana Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the United States would give India more access to nuclear technology. That message likely was meant as much for India's neighbors as for India, the Monitor reported Wednesday.

The United States has a war on terror ally in Pakistan, but is quick to point out Pakistan's A.Q. Khan is responsible for much of the development of nuclear technology in places not as friendly to the United States. The growing nuclear power in the world is China.

Joseph Cirincione, with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Monitor: "The crux of this announcement is what it tells us about the U.S. grand strategy, and that behind whatever else is going on here the U.S. is preparing for a grand conflict with China and constructing an anti-China coalition."