2008 Olympics Vs Darfur crisis, a hard mission for Beijing

 By Dr.Maurice GOUNTIN

(THIS IS AN ARTCILE WRITTEN IN MARCH 2008.THOUGH  BEIJING HAS ALREADY ENTERED A POST-OLYMPIC ERA, BUT STILL IS THE ARTICLE  READABLE FOR THE VALUE OF ITS CONTENT)

There has been nothing but excitement in China since July 13, 2001, the day of the announcement in Moscow that Beijing had won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. It has inspired a nationalist spirit and a desire to hold a fair event. But increasingly forces outside the country are using the Games to pressure China to exert its diplomatic powers in ways it has never sought to do so before. For China, the Beijing Olympics is more than a sporting and logistical effort, it is an extreme diplomatic challenge.

China failed many times before it was given the privilege of organising the 2008 Olympics and many Chinese people seem to consider hosting the event to be the country’s retaliation against the outside world that to some extent, still considers China to be poor and backward.

Apart from this popular support, the Beijing organisers have the necessary financial backing. China has not suffered the economic and financial problems that the South African Republic is certainly experiencing in the leadup to the 2010 World Cup. China has been investing money and energy to make of the 2008 Beijing Olympics a great success. But not all of these without worries.

China’s traditionally sensitive issues including Taiwan, human rights and religious freedom have predictably been under close watch. But there have also been a raft of new sensitivities such as environmental pollution, the quality of “Made a China” products and – most surprisingly - the Darfur issue.

The world has known about the Darfur crisis since February, 2003, but only since the Sino-Africa Forum that brought 48 African heads of states and leaders to Beijing in November, 2006, that the West, precisely the USA and Britain, brought any attention to bear on  China’s African policy.

China is accused of backing pariah regimes in Zimbabwe and Sudan, but the Darfur crisis has especially been the main focus of criticism. The root issue is the exploitation of oil in Darfur by the non-democratically elected Sudan government.Not only China is one of the major importers of oil from Sudan but it also acknowledges selling arms to Khatoom.

With the Darfur crisis still unresolved and August 2008 approaching, the international community but mostly NGOs in the west have started a campaign to boycott the Beijing Olympics. US director Steve Spielberg resigned as artistic advisor to the Beijing Games,  spoiling China’s hopes for a politics-free Olympics and making Beijing even more nervous.

US President George W Bush and the British Foreign Secretary David Milliband have expressed their support for Beijing’s Olympics but China is still on edge about any negative comments leading up to August.

The Beijing Olympics is the country’s top priority but, at the same time, China is dying for oil to fuel its rapidly growing domestic industries. In diplomatic terms, it is facing a historically tough mission with Darfur by trying to balance the demands for action with its stated position of non-interference in the internal political affairs of other countries.

China needs to find a solution to Darfur crisis and has sought to ease the growing international pressure by rejecting calls for the politicization of the 2008 Olympics and trying to convince observers about its commitment to encouraging the parties in Sudan towards a settlement. After appointing special ambassador Guijin Liu to lead on Darfur, China, under a United Nations resolution, dispatched 140 of 315 promised peacekeepers to build basic infrastructure in Darfur.

During his February 24 visit, Ambassador Liu promised to speed up the implementation of the different assistance projects in the troubled region. In 2006, China provided US$11 million to Darfur and Chinese companies invested US$50 million in the construction of basic infrastructure such as wells, roads, hydro-power stations and classrooms.

China on its own cannot solve the Darfur crisis unless the region is granted to China as a colony, a practice that the West has a better command of but that China denies it intends to engage in. Yet, for the 2008 Olympics, Beijing has gone far from its traditional respect of non-interference.

A boycott of the Beijing Olympics will do little to solve African problems that are more complex than they appear. The Darfur crisis requires the joint efforts of the international community, but of paramount importance to ending a conflict that has already killed more than 200,000 civilians is the will and determination of the Sudanese government.

End

The author is a citizen of The Republic of Benin, holds a PhD in Contemporary China's Diplomacy at Renmin University of China, and has been in China for 10 years.)

Bush’s visit to Africa:  Postscript diplomacy

 By Dr.Maurice GOUNTIN

 (THIS IS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN IN MARCH 2008, BUT STILL READABLE FOR THE VALUE OF ITS CONTENT)

Africa has never been a US foreign diplomacy priority so while President George W Bush’s recent visit to the continent raised the attention of the international media the sudden interest in Africa aroused only suspicion of the international community, particularly in the African states that have for so long been neglected. To the people in the nations visited, the trip seems like an afterthought.

From 2001, the Bush administration focused on the fight against terrorism and the hunt for oil and the clear proof of this is the US attacks on Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. The US has also been taking note of the rise of China and its interest in Africa as a threat to American world super power status. When the Sino-Africa forum was held in Beijing in November, 2006, it made the old European powers in Africa nervous, but it also raised the level of US interest in Africa.

It was just three months later that the US Department of Defense announced the creation of a new US Africa Command infrastructure (AFRICOM) to “coordinate all US military and security interests throughout the continent”. AFRICOM is due to come into being by September and the speed at which it is being realised and the military-driven engagement with Africa reflects the Bush administration’s desperation to control the increasingly strategic natural resources on the African continent, especially oil, gas, and uranium.

AFRICOM is also seen as an attempt to counter the growing influence of China in the resources-rich Gulf of Guinea and secure the strategic resources for the US. Nigeria is already the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United States and Liberia is interested in the AFRICOM initiative but all US attempts to convince other African nations to get on board have only met with opposition. This is because there has been little sustained US attention to the region.

Mr Bush’s first visit to Africa in July, 2003, took him to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. It was part of a campaign to gain these countries’ support for the invasion of Iraq, and was recognition of their influence on their respective sub-regions. But his recent visit to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Liberia and Ghana doesn’t show any particular strategic interest in the nations visited. These countries are the least important in the US diplomatic agenda, are poor in resources and don’t have any particular relations with China. But they do share common characteristics in terms of relative stability and certain democratic norms.

Since the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has not been seen positively among Africans so to rescue his country’s and his personal reputation on the continent, Mr Bush decided to visit its less strategic countries. It was an effort to show that apart from the war against terrorism and the hunt for oil, the US also cared about democracy, AIDS, and poverty eradication in the poorest countries in the world. But it was not until almost the end of his days in the White House that he sought to do this.

If terrorism and oil are the main themes of the Bush presidency, his recent visit to Africa qualifies as a postscript at the end of a letter. Poor countries in Africa have almost been forgotten in the US diplomatic agenda, but through this “postscript diplomacy”, Mr Bush may just have saved his image among the continent’s neglected countries.

End

Being the owner of this blog, I gave an interview to foreignercn.com , a well-known website that reports about life and experiences of foreigners in China. Hope you're interested in my observation on China.

Please read the full version of the interview down here:

http://www.foreignercn.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1634&Itemid=29

Dr Maurice GOUNTIN   in Beijing

The owner of this blog,Maurice GOUNTIN has given an interview to The Xinhua on the China-Africa relations.

Click here to read the full version of the Interview: http://en.ce.cn/World/Africa/200806/05/t20080605_15740528.shtml

Maurice GOUNTIN  in Beijing

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