CHINA: Special envoy off to Darfur
Updated
China says it will send a special envoy to Sudan, to focus on the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region. A four-year violent campaign by a government-allied militia has left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people. Chinese president Hu Jintao in February, called on Khartoum to give the UN a bigger role in Sudan.
Presenter: Corinne Podger
Speakers: Professor Barry Sautman of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
STUDENT SFX "The Chinese government in order to safeguard its interest in Sudanese oil has not only turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the Sudanese government, but ...
PODGER: New York students demonstrating outside the Chinese and Sudanese embassies, calling for China to wind up its investments in the African nation until the Darfur conflict is ended. Now, more than 100 US congressmen have issued a similar call for financial divestment in a letter to President Hu Jintao. In it, they say "It would be a disaster for China if the Games were to be marred by protests from concerned individuals and groups, who will undoubtedly link your government to the continued atrocities in Darfur." The man behind the letter is Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos; his spokeswoman is Lynne Weil.
WEIL: He's really encouraging China to help stop the situation in Darfur and one of the ways he'd like to see that done is to discourage China from continuing its extensive investments in Sudan.
PODGER: Bonnie Glaser is a senior Chinese expert at the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies. She says there's now a broad surge in public support in the US urging senior officials to try to push China towards helping end the Darfur conflict.
GLASER: This follows on the heels of a similar letter that was sent by the Senate. Last month there was a call by Mia Farrow, a well known actress, to Steven Spielberg who is working with the Chinese on the Olympic committee as an artistic adviser to put pressure on the Chinese government and she termed these Olympics the "genocide olympics". This approach has really gotten China's attention.
PODGER: In recent days the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also urged China to take a stronger stance on Sudan, as it has done with North Korea. Dr Rice says this will help reassure the international community that China can be a stable influence on world affairs amid its continuing economic boom.
RICE: The Chinese think the way we've worked now on North Korea is very effective, similarly, we are again working well together in the UN on Iran. I wish that we could have a somewhat stronger Chinese role on Sudan.
PODGER: As well as announcing the appointment of a Sudan envoy, China's also said it will send engineers to assist the UN peacekeepers when they do finally arrive. Professor Glaser believes this is evidence that the China lobby in the US has, to a degree, unsettled its target.
GLASER: Well we have seen some moves in recent weeks on the part of the Chinese government. In April the Chinese sent an assistant minister from their ministry of foreign affairs, who not only went to Sudan but also visited three refugee camps there. And publicly made some statements urging the govt in Sudan to accept the UN peacekeeping force. Privately the Chinese have been saying this for some months. I do think that this effort of shaming China, if you will, is having an effect on the Chinese government to some extent.
PODGER: But Professor Barry Sautman, a China-Africa relations expert at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology disagrees. He says trying to force China to abandon its longstanding policy of non-interference in the affairs of other sovereign states won't work.
SAUTMAN: It's going to further alienate the Chinese government with respect to the possible moves it could make to persuade Sudan to accede to cooperation with the United Nations efforts. Because the Sudanese government of course very much resents being branded as a government that is conducting genocide and if it becomes evident that external forces are completely hostile to the Sudanese government or are attempting to work some regime change based upon the question of Darfur, then the Sudanese government itself will convey to the Chinese government that it's not willing to be cooperative.
