At one point in Homer’s Odyssey, the hero has to steer his ship between twin dangers: Scylla, a multi-headed monster, and the whirlpool of Charybdis. Leaders of the Group of Seven rich countries meeting this month in Hiroshima may feel they are in a similar situation when it comes to China. They don’t want Beijing to invade Taiwan; but they also want to avoid war with the People’s Republic.
One of the major objectives of the U.S.-India civil nuclear deal was to bring India within the international nuclear nonproliferation regime by giving it both the rights and responsibilities broadly equivalent to those of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member states, without requiring it to officially sign the treaty. This allows India to maintain its nuclear weapons deterrent and to obtain access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel.
The annual debate over renewal of normal trading status for thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) has raised an enormous debate inthis country over the effectiveness of economic sanctions.