During the past week’s acrimonious public debate over the stalled nuclear negotiations in Geneva regarding Iran, China has escaped public censure. Beijing’s low profile was not due to indifference, but to China’s complex relationship with Iran and the United States.

China’s counterterrorism policy since the 2001 attacks on the United States has increasingly been pursued in the context of the global war on terror. In Africa, as threats to Chinese interests increase; Beijing has quietly been ramping up its efforts to confront terrorism.

If Rouhani is going to improve the Iranian economy, then he has to seek the cancellation or at the least the relaxation of sanctions by the West. In other words, the new Iranian President has to be more innovative and flexible in diplomatic policies, including the nuclear issue, writes He Wenping.

The decision of the Turkish government to purchase its first long-range air and missile defense system from a Chinese corporation rather than competing U.S., European, and Russian systems has aroused much attention. However, this decision is unsurprising given Ankara’s longstanding desire to gain as much foreign defense technology as possible for the lowest cost.

Both sides on the Korean Peninsula should realize that neither could destroy the other, and that it is necessary to continue this confrontational peace based on reciprocity and balance, write Shuang Shi and Xiong Lei.

What role should China play in issues like the Syrian crisis? China’s role is to prevent the Syrian issue from becoming a deal between the US and Russia only, and to push for more international cooperation, writes Pang Zhongying.

There is nothing wrong with expecting China to contribute more to the Middle East, and hopefully China will do so, but the allegations that China has contributed little to the Middle East is far from the truth, writes Jin Liangxiang.

NASA’s ban on Chinese researchers and scientists at next month’s meeting at the Ames Research Center has caused outcry far and wide. While the backlash against NASA has came mostly from big name research institutions, like Yale University, Wu Zurong writes that US politicians stuck in a Cold War-mindset are to blame.

Following United States military intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, Zhao Weibin lays out four reasons why the Obama administration is unlikely to undertake military action in Syria against Bashar al-Assad.

Both the Chinese and U.S. governments welcomed last week’s decision of the Noble Prize Committee to award the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) its annual peace prize. However, while Beijing and Washington cooperate on most chemical weapons issues, they do differ on some.