You need to start thinking strategically. Strategically, it is important to us to secure the minerals and fuel sources we need, and have the ability to deny them to those who oppose us. SH was an ally of China. Therefore, turning Iraq to a friendly state secures those oil reserves to our ultimate control. China has a serious lack of oil on its own soil, and an inability to project power to secure fields overseas.
People concerned about China here should remember that as long as the Persian Gulf is really an American Gulf, we have the ability to turn off the Chinese oil tap any time we wish.
Same thing with agriculture. Our ability to make China addicted to American and Canadian wheat is also an ability for us to have the upper hand with them. Don't want to play ball in the future? Guess what, your people will starve.
I would take exception to the strategic picture you paint. Our strategic posture is brittle, and relies on thin reeds.
China is exporting corn, and a lot of other foodstuffs...its economy is far more robust than most arm-chair tacticians are really appreciating, as they now approach having the largest ship-building complex. And another major weakness. The Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula is not an American Pond...if you hadn't noticed, while we may have nominally supportive titular heads of government, underneath this is seething a huge Islamo-fascist anti-american cauldron....constantly being stirred by Al-Jazeera, Saudi-financed Mullahs and Madrassas ...and the likes of two-faced governments with their state-controlled media such as Egypt, and yes, China.
Consequently, with the help of Jimmy Carter and his ilk (plus likely moles) in the State Dept. and CIA over the last 25 years, we have lost the hearts and minds of all the middle east with the exception of Afghanistan, and Iraq. These are recent, and fragile re-orientations at best. They are still easily swayed by a few Al-Jazeera videos of mosques being shot up. Not dependable at all.
Two points:
1. Iraq/Iran for China is not really overseas - they share the same land mass. It is rather the issue of the landroads and pipelines.
2. China has huge reserves of coal. Coal can be liquified and as oil becomes more expensive this can become viable option.
Same thing with agriculture. Our ability to make China addicted to American and Canadian wheat is also an ability for us to have the upper hand with them.
China can make her agriculture more efficient (even Japan with much higher density of population can produce most of Japan's grain). In northern China there are large tracks of land suitable for the wheat cultivation.