From Wednesday’s Omega Letter comes something to think about.

Special Report: Inscrutable China

The world’s attention — particularly the Western world’s attention — is laser-focused on the threat posed by Islamic extremism and the war on terror.

The bulk of US intelligence gathering, the bulk of its forward deployed assets, the majority of its money and resources are devoted to the Middle East and Iran.

Somewhere, off in the periphery, there is a nagging awareness of big trouble brewing from China, but China is so far away (and so big!) and, after all, the Chinese aren’t shooting at us. Muslim extremists are.

The Islamic problem is enormous. If only ten percent of world-wide Islam is sympathetic to the aims of al-Qaeda, that equates to some 120 million Islamic enemies — a ratio of one Islamic fighter per to every three Americans, including women and children and grandparents.

And at the heart of it all is the Israeli-Arab conflict, which threatens to spill over into open warfare again before the year is out. That could bring about an all out conflict in the heart of the Middle East, and, in a worst-case scenario, one involving nuclear weapons. The danger is so acute that it occupies the full attention of the “Quartet” consisting of the UN, EU, and Russia with the US as the lead negotiator.

China is taking an arm’s length approach to the Middle East, leaving it to occupy the West and Russia’s attention. And, since it is not actively involved in the global war on terror, China manages to stay ‘off the radar.’ But still, there is that nagging sense that China is up to no good — but that will have to wait for now.

China is like the elephant in the living room that everybody is trying unsuccessfully to ignore. No matter where you turn, there it is.

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