Nothing new on the eastern front. Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to Khartoum has strengthened the economic ties between China and Sudan, but brought no results for solving the crisis in Darfur, where 200,000 people have died since 2003. The West was hoping Beijing would exert diplomatic pressure on its African ally, but it expressed only a generic wish for peace. On the contrary, Hu reaffirmed the principle of Sudan’s territorial sovereignty, virtually endorsing the status quo.

Accords. A huge loan to build a new presidential palace, the cancellation of 80 million dollars in debt, 5 million for humanitarian aid in Darfur: these are the salient results of Friday’s meeting between Hu and his Sudanese counterpart, Hassan Omar al-Bashir. The knotted question of Darfur remains unresolved, with no mention in the final communiqué of the 17,000 United Nations peacekeeping proposed to replace the African Union troops currently stationed there. Sudan refuses to allow any UN peacekeepers in its territory. “The outcome of the summit was disappointing,” the editor of the magazine Africa Confidential, Patrick Smith, told PeaceReporter, “but to be realistic, we did not expect major steps forward. The three Western powers on the UN Security Council (USA, Great Britain, and France) are not committed to resolving the Darfur question. And China knows that very well.”

Diplomacy. According to Nicola Mandil, a reporter for the Sudan Radio Service, not even Khartoum displayed exceptional interest in the summit. He told PeaceReporter, “Partly because Friday was a holiday, the nation didn’t much follow the summit meeting, except for a few hundred people who met the presidential motorcade. After all, the meeting is unlikely to affect the daily lives of the people.”
    China buys 400,000 barrels of oil from Khartoum every year, and dominates the building trades in the capital, making it Sudan’s principal economic partner. Many human rights organizations have criticized Beijing for selling arms to Sudan, since the African nation is accused of supporting the Janjaweed militias who are responsible for most of the murders of the people of Darfur. According to Smith, “The Western nations don’t have clean hands either.  Rolls Royce motors are used for drilling the oil wells, and Great Britain does a lot of business with Sudan. That’s why London is reluctant to take a strong position on this war. It’s logical that if no one is willing to stand up for Darfur, the Chinese believe they can contain any criticisms.”

Protests. Nonetheless, the Chinese presence in Africa is beginning to attract attention, especially for the treatment of workers on Chinese-run projects. Protest demonstrations have been organized in Zambia and South Africa as well as Sudan. “I recently saw a demonstration by Sudanese workers for the China National Petroleum Corporation (the largest Chinese firm in Sudan),” said Mandil, “Workers are paid $150 per month working seven days a week. People who used to live near the oil wells, whose land was expropriated, are complaining they didn’t receive adequate compensation.” Perhaps public resistance will influence Beijing more than it has been able, so far,  to influence Washington, Paris, and London.