Sudan in focus for China’s Hu on Africa tour
Jan 24, 2007 (BEIJING) — Chinese President Hu Jintao will press for negotiations to resolve the Darfur crisis during an Africa tour next month, under Western pressure to wield Beijing’s vast oil investments for leverage on Sudan.
Hu’s eight-nation trip, which is aimed at strengthening ties and widening access to energy and resources in Africa, comes three months after Beijing drove home its engagement with the continent by hosting a summit for 48 African leaders.
The United States has called on China — which has huge oil investments in Sudan — to use its influence to ensure the country abides by U.N. resolutions on Darfur.
But a Chinese official said on Wednesday that Beijing remained opposed to sanctions.
“The Sudan issue should be resolved like any other — through peaceful negotiation,” Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun told a news conference. “Using pressure and imposing sanctions is not practical and will not help settle the issue.”
Zhai himself recently returned from Sudan, where he met President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as a special envoy of the Chinese government, signalling China’s engagement on Darfur, where aid agencies and experts say security is deteriorating.
Hu will meet Bashir during his Feb. 2-3 visit, part of a tour that will also take him to Cameroon, Namibia, South Africa, the Seychelles, Liberia, Zambia and Mozambique.
It will be his first overseas trip of the year, underscoring the importance China is placing on Africa, whose resources it covets. Despite giving aid and making investments in Africa, Beijing has been accused of ignoring corruption and human rights.
Sudan is China’s third-largest trading partner in Africa, with bilateral trade at $2.9 billion in the first 11 months of 2006, compared with $3.6 billion the previous year, Chinese figures show.
Oil imports dropped off in the first part of 2006, but trade has since rebounded, and in November Sudan was China’s fourth-largest source of crude imports.
China’s energy ties there have been criticised, but some analysts point out that at a time of high oil prices, its involvement brings extra supply to strained markets that can benefit all consumers — including those who shun business with Khartoum over moral concerns.
“NOTHING TO HIDE”
China also supplies weapons to Sudan, and human rights groups have said small arms from China have been fuelling the conflict in Darfur, but Zhai defended the trade.
“With Sudan, we have cooperation in many aspects, including military cooperation. In this, we have nothing to hide,” he said, adding all such trade was lawful.
Zhai said China was also becoming more sensitive to the business practices of its companies in Africa, after riots triggered by a labour dispute at a Chinese-invested copper mine in Zambia forced a brief suspension in production and made China an issue in the country’s presidential election.
“We are also trying to educate Chinese businesses who have interests in Africa and investments there to respect social conventions and observe local laws and regulations.”
Zhai expressed anger at criticisms that China was interested only in milking the continent’s resources and that it was failing to attach demands for transparency and accountability to offers of aid, loans and investment.
“China-Africa cooperation is based on mutual benefit. It is open and transparent and brings benefit to both sides,” he said.
(Reuters)