You underestimate the power of Islamic ingratitude. Clinton provided the Muslims with an airforce to conqueror Christian lands in Europe. Bush did not change Clinton's Balkan policy, and 9-11 was our thanks.
The Muslims will bite the hand that feeds them, and there is a chance this will produce an alliance of convenience. (Which we can hope will last long enough that the internal dynamic of Chinese modernization destroys the neo-fascist incarnation of Chinese communism before we need to fight them.)
China’s need for oil reserves for its growing domestic economy has caused its government to pursue investments in many countries of marginal stability and democracy, but its greatest oil success abroad has been in Sudan.China was not new to Sudan. By the time it invested in GNPOC in December 1996, it was already a familiar arms dealer to many Sudanese governments. The Nimeiri government (1969-85) bought weapons from China. But these purchases rose in the 1990s due to Sudan’s internal war and the promise of improved finances and enhanced international credit derived from its oil potential.
Weapons deliveries from China to Sudan since 1995 have included ammunition, tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircraft. China also became a major supplier of antipersonnel and antitank mines after 1980, according to a Sudanese government official. The SPLA in 1997 overran government garrison towns in the south, and in one town alone, Yei, a Human Rights Watch researcher saw eight Chinese 122 mm towed howitzers, five Chinese-made T-59 tanks, and one Chinese 37 mm anti-aircraft gun abandoned by the government army.
China admitted that it brought in a team of 10,000 Chinese laborers so the GNPOC project could be completed by the NIF’s tenth anniversary (June 30, 1999). Its labor costs were low: “Our workers are used to eating bitterness . . . they can work 13 to 14 hours a day for very little.”
Selected extracts of Human Rights Watch website: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/26.htm