China says strongly opposed to US House resolution on Darfur
June 8, 2007 (BEIJING) — China has rejected a U.S. House of Representatives resolution urging Chinese pressure on Sudan to resolve the Darfur crisis, saying the American move wrongly links the issue to next year’s Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
“Disregarding China’s constructive efforts over the Darfur issue, the resolution condemned China without reason, tries to link the issue with the Beijing Olympics and wantonly interfered into China’s internal affairs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site late Thursday.
The resolution, which is not binding on U.S. foreign policy, passed 410-0 and urged China to suspend economic ties and military sales to Sudan until Khartoum complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million displaced since February 2003, when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Khartoum government. Sudanese authorities responded by unleashing both the military and government-backed rebels.
China’s involvement in Sudan is becoming a liability as the country tries to portray itself as a responsible power while welcoming the world to the 2008 Olympics, a massive source of national pride.
However, the U.S. resolution did not call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, as urged by some activists and politicians.
“China should act consistently with the Olympic standard of preserving human dignity in Darfur, Sudan and around the world,” the resolution said.
Jiang said China had been “working hard” toward a political solution to the crisis.
While visiting Sudan in February, President Hu Jintao urged President Omar al-Bashir to give the United Nations a greater role in trying to resolve the conflict – a rare public pronouncement contrary to China’s traditional refusal to interfere in what it considers other countries’ internal affairs.
Beijing recently announced it had appointed a special representative on African affairs to focus on the Sudan issue, and confirmed it will send engineers to support U.N. peacekeepers trying to quell the violence.
(AP)