U.S. Naval Base Plan Ticks Off Chinese

A proposed U.S. naval base in Perth, Australia, has Chinese analysts worried

AN AMERICAN naval base in Perth would confirm suspicions of an effort to contain or encircle China, say Chinese analysts.

Such a move would raise the temptation for China to use its enormous economic leverage to retaliate, they say.

''Of course it would damage the atmosphere,'' the director of Tsinghua University's centre for China-US relations, Sun Zhe, said. ''It would be interpreted within China as another move to encircle China.''