China in a deep dilemma as Sudan’s Bashir faces charges
July 14, 2008 (BEIJING) – With Sudan’s president facing international charges of genocide, China confronts acute choices over its relationship with the African leader — and just as the Beijing Olympics opens a soft spot for international pressure.
Beijing has for years scrambled between its energy and political stakes in Sudan and a rising power’s desire for a respected seat at the table in Darfur peace efforts.
The ICC prosecutor’s momentous move makes that straddling act immensely harder, with all sides of the conflict waiting to see if Beijing will seek to suspend the legal action via a U.N. Security Council decision.
On Tuesday, a day after the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced the charges, China still had no public response — an eloquent enough reflection of the dilemmas it is facing.
“This presents China with many quandaries,” said He Wenping, an Africa expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading think-tank in Beijing.
“It will have many consequences that China won’t like. Our own peacekeepers could be threatened, and also this will seriously impede China’s space to mediate over Darfur and encourage dialogue between Sudan and the West.”
She and other observers did not expect China to move on its own to hold off the ICC, especially with Beijing determined to burnish its international image with the August Olympics.
Groups critical of China’s arms and oil ties with Khartoum have urged protests to shame Beijing during the Games.
“We haven’t interfered in the ICC’s work up to now, so I can’t see China doing it over Bashir and Darfur just before the Olympics,” said He.
Beijing will probably call Moreno-Ocampo’s decision to target Bashir unwise, weigh reactions of other major players, especially the United States, Russia and the African Union, but let other powers lead any opposition, said Shi Yinhong, an international security expert at Renmin University in Beijing.
“With international opinion so excited ahead of the Beijing Olympics, this is not the time for dramatic decisions (by China),” said Shi. “The Olympics make a complicated situation for China even more complicated.”
DEFENDING CHINA, BLAMING THE REBELS
China’s special envoy on Darfur, Liu Guijin, has not publicly commented on the charges against Bashir.
But in the official China Daily on Tuesday, Liu defended his countries role in Sudan and suggested that it was Darfur rebels — not Bashir’s government — impeding stalled peace efforts.
Rejecting a BBC report that Chinese-made arms found their way to government-backed forces in Darfur, Liu said Western-made arms in the hands of the rebels were the real trouble.
China is a major investor in Sudan’s oil. Its crude imports from Sudan are relatively small, but with turbulent energy markets and heady oil prices, Beijing would be loath to turn against Khartoum and its resources.
In the first five months of this year, Sudan was China’s seventh biggest supplier of imported crude, sending 4.4 million tonnes, a fall of nearly 6 percent on the same period last year.
But buffeted by international calls to staunch bloodshed in Darfur, China backed a U.N. resolution authorising a hybrid U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, nudged Bashir to accept the force, and has contributed its own engineers.
A fresh unit of Chinese peacekeepers will go to Darfur this week.
China also abstained from the Security Council vote in 2005 that authorised the ICC to investigate Darfur, angering Khartoum, which wanted China to use its veto power.
If China were to seek a Security Council resolution to suspend ICC action for one year, it would need to persuade the other permanent members not to veto, said Amjad Atallah, senior director for international policy for the Save Darfur Coalition, which supports the case against Bashir.
“Under current conditions, this seems virtually impossible,” he said.
(Reuters)
Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy
China in a deep dilemma as Sudan’s Bashir faces charges
China is dump fueling the issue of justice in Sudan,your troops are in durfur to kill the durfurians not to maintain peace,go and pull out your bloody troops in durfur,am sorry just beshir to hell.we don’t need your troops in Sudan.you think it is good for you to get more minerials from Sudan while more people are dying because of your benefit,what a joke?
Gatnath
China in a deep dilemma as Sudan’s Bashir faces charges
China to block the decision of ICC in the Security Council what ridiculous! Why Chinese are behaving as if they are just dealing with al-Bashir and not the Sudanese people!! What will be the fade of relationships between China and Sudan after Al-Bashir!! Is it going to die with Al-Bashir or continue after that!!
I hope Chinese will be wise enough to reckon their wrong doing and back-off
from the backing or supporting of the criminals such as Al-Bashir, if China want to continue to deal with the people of Sudan aftermath of Al-Bashir!!
This country and its resources that china are chasing right now, are not the personal properties of Al-Bashir and his NCP but belong to the people of Sudan!!
Common China, be wise and realistic about your evil deeds toward the oppressed people of Darur and Southern Sudan who are being killed daily by Al-Bashir militias, using your cheap weapons,don’t be blindfolded by the b business with Al-Bashir, as Al-Bashir’s fade will be yours in Sudan as well.