China’s Hu visits Sudan, sees strong economic ties
Feb 2, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Hundreds of people waving banners welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao on his first visit to Sudan on Friday when he arrived in the capital with a large delegation amid heavy security.
Thousands of Chinese expatriates live in Sudan, working on construction projects and in Sudan’s budding oil industry, and Khartoum’s main streets were lined with Sudanese and Chinese flags.
“Welcome Hu Jintao, welcome to Sudan,” read the banners held up by crowds lining the streets.
“I am confident this visit will facilitate a strengthening of the traditional friendship between China and Sudan and bring cooperation between the countries to a new level,” Hu said in a statement which also mentioned strengthening economic ties.
Sudan’s Islamic government, under heavy U.S. sanctions, has relied heavily on its unlikely Asian, communist ally to expand its oil production to 330,000 barrels per day and build key infrastructure like dams and roads. Sudan’s economy is expected to grow by 13 percent this year.
China’s “no strings attached” aid policy has infuriated many in the West who want China to use its economic muscle to persuade Khartoum to end atrocities in its violent Darfur region, where four years of war have killed an estimated 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
Hu’s statement made no mention of Darfur or the violence in Sudan’s western desert region.
Sudan sells much of its crude to China and buys weapons from the energy-hungry country. Chinese arms are used by all sides in the Darfur conflict, despite an arms embargo on the region.
Few believe Hu will use his first visit to Sudan to press his hosts on rights abuses. On Friday he will travel to a Chinese-built oil refinery and is also expected to sign trade agreements.
China is due to host the 2008 Olympics, and activists are campaigning for a boycott of the Games if China does not use its permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council to put pressure on Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur to end the violence.
“Unless the international community — in particular China, host of the 2008 Olympics — finds the will to confront Khartoum over its intransigence, a savage genocide by attrition will continue indefinitely,” said Eric Reeves, a U.S. academic and Darfur expert.
Washington calls the rape, killing and pillage in Darfur genocide, a term Khartoum rejects. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.
Sudan rejects a U.N. Security Council resolution to deploy a 22,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping force to Darfur, calling it an attempt at Western colonisation.
Hu, making an eight-nation tour of Africa to strengthen ties in a period marked by huge Chinese demand for raw materials for its rapid industrial expansion, has already visited Cameroon and Liberia.
(Reuters)