China's Involvement in Darfur

:: Class Discussion::

So I was nominated by my classmates to host a debate/discussion on the Beijing Olympics in class for the speaking portion of the test yesterday. During the discussion Okabe, the Japanese student, pontificated that the Chinese were selling weapons to the Darfur rebels and that this was amoral. I had never heard of this before since I had always thought the Chinese were neutral and there purely for pragmatic reasons, namely to acquire resources to feed the beast that is the Chinese economy. Recently, they had even denounced the genocide.

Thus, this inspired me to make my second post concerning the misinformation in the Western media surrounding China, human rights, etc. Folks, I can't stress enough the importance of reading independent, alternative media. Whether that's through blogs (Technorati), lesser known media outlets like The Huffington Post, Alternet, Harper's, etc. From what I've heard the younger generation in China doesn't trust the media either so they resort to blogs and alternative media sources as well. As Noam Chomsky has asserted, manipulation through the media is even easier in democratic, supposedly open societies because people assume their media is trustworthy, while in autocratic states the people intrinsically are skeptical and find their own answers through creative outlets.

::Alternative News Sources::

I also like to read some well-known news sources (albeit most of them are from the UK), like The Economist, BBC, Newsweek, and occasionally The Washington Post or Christian Science Monitor. For the most part these are very trustworthy, especially The Economist, but the danger with these is that they often are so successful because they rely upon advertising and sponsors and they have vested interests as well that sometimes conflict with giving unbiased news. Of course the smaller independent media sources also have this problem so it's important to read myriad, diverse media to get a more realistic picture. This was probably the best lesson I garnered working at CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) in NOHO, Manhattan. I had to do research on the mistreatment and torture of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Grahib, and also on US policies of repatriation of political asylum seekers even in the face of imminent death or torture when they return. I also was doing a research paper on the NSA wiretapping scandal, where American civilian phone conversations were being illegally recorded and screened to find terrorists amongst the American populace. Time, BBC, and Newsweek had many articles but I often had to resort to searching out alternative news sources for more information. And I was advised by my mentor at CCR to seek out alternative news sources as well (he's the one that introduced me to Google News and Technorati).

::China's Role in Development in the Third World::

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I've seen a documentary and read a great article that highlights how China actually has a mutual symbiotic relationship with these resource rich, capital poor countries in South America and Africa.

The documentary, "China vs. USA: Battle for Oil" (Part 1 of 5):



From the article, "The Forgotten Oil War in Sudan:"

Unattached development aid from China:

"China has actually helped Sudan’s economic development while serving its own needs for oil. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves, China has been generous in dispensing its soft loans, with no interest or outright grants to some of the poorest debtor states of Africa. The loans have gone to infrastructure including highways, hospitals, and schools, a stark contrast to the brutal austerity demands of the IMF and World Bank. In 2006 China committed more than $8 billion to Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique, versus $2.3 billion to all sub-Saharan Africa from the World Bank. Unlike the World Bank, a de facto arm of US foreign economic policy, China attaches no strings to its loans."

US policy in these countries:

“ 'The United States, acting through surrogate allies in Chad and neighboring states has trained and armed the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army, headed until his death in July 2005, by John Garang, trained at US Special Forces school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

By pouring arms into first southern Sudan in the eastern part and since discovery of oil in Darfur, to that region as well, Washington fueled the conflict that led to tens of thousands dying and several million driven to flee their homes. Eritrea hosts and supports the SPLA, the umbrella NDA opposition group, and the Eastern Front and Darfur rebels.

The Pentagon has been busy training African military officers in the US, much as it has for Latin American officers for decades. Its International Military Education and Training (IMET) program has provided training to military officers from Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, in effect every country on Sudan’s border. Much of the arms that have fuelled the killing in Darfur and the south have been brought in via murky, protected private “merchants of death” such as the notorious former KGB operative, now with offices in the US, Victor Bout. Bout has been cited repeatedly in recent years for selling weapons across Africa. US Government officials strangely leave his operations in Texas and Florida untouched despite the fact he is on the Interpol wanted list for money laundering.

US development aid for all Sub-Sahara Africa including Chad, has been cut sharply in recent years while its military aid has risen. Oil and the scramble for strategic raw materials is the clear reason.' "