China supported the U.N. Security Council resolution clearing the way for the deployment of an International Force for East Timor and also offered to send a civilian police contingent to be part of the U.N. peacemaking operation. Given China's advocacy of the principle of noninterference in internal affairs (based on its adherence to the 19th-century notion of state sovereignty), observers have described Beijing's response to the East Timor crisis as "intriguing."

However, a deeper analysis of China's broader strategic objectives and of the "big picture" that is the fast-changing Asian security environment shows that, far from marking a significant departure from earlier Chinese policy, Beijing's response to the Indonesian crisis represents nothing but the continuation of its Asia policy.

By allowing the United Nations to authorize the force for East Timor, but only after Indonesia caved in to international pressure, China has ensured the primacy of the U.N. Security Council in dealing with world crises, a principle overridden by NATO's operation in Kosovo, without compromising the principle of nonintervention in the affairs of sovereign states. China would certainly not allow such intervention in Tibet or Taiwan, nor would Russia countenance external intervention in Dagestan or Chechnya.