China will continue efforts to bring peace to Darfur – VP

July 18, 2007 (BEIJING) — China will continue its efforts to help bring peace to the troubled Darfur region, Vice President Zeng Qinghong said Wednesday during a meeting with a top Sudanese official.

Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir was in Beijing as part of a six-day visit to China. He said he appreciated China’s role in helping resolve the bloodshed in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others displaced since February 2003, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

“China’s stance on the Darfur issue is consistent and China has played constructive role,” Zeng said, according to state television. “China will actively push for an early resolution to the Darfur issue.”

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.

China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, buys two-thirds of Sudan’s oil exports, sells the African country weapons and military aircraft, and has blocked efforts to send U.N. peacekeeping forces to Darfur without Sudanese consent.

Liu Guijin, China’s special envoy to Sudan, has said China was instrumental in a June diplomatic breakthrough when Sudan’s government finally agreed to let a strong force of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers deploy in Darfur.

In the past, Chinese officials have warned against attempts to “politicize” the Olympics.

(AP)