Much of the African Continent is mired in conflict and ruled by thuggish regimes…exactly the kind of conditions Beijing prefers for expanding its influence.  And Indeed, whether it is arming the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, or enabling the genocidal regime in Khartoum, the regime in Beijing seems drawn to African misery like moths to a flame.

From Richard Gustafson at the University of Denver, here is an academic analysis of “China’s Growing Influence on the African Continent.” From the abstract:

Because of their colonial histories, African nations tend to be splintered, and conflicts on the continent are frequently internal. Following the Tienanmen Square incident in 1989 and the end of Cold War, the West’s financial support to Cold War allies diminished at the same time China shifted the focus of its foreign policy toward Africa. It offered aid and low interest loans with few or no conditions regarding governance or human rights. The continuous power struggles and efforts to maintain power make China’s overtures tempting to many African leaders. Many of China’s interactions come at the expense of the citizens of African nations and create a long-term detriment to economies on the African continent.

How do you use video to summarize the breadth and scope of Beijing’s economic and political complicity in the genocide in Darfur in just ninety seconds, and in a way that makes people willing to watch? From the outstanding Darfur advocacy group, Dream for Darfur, comes this satirical animation video featuring Gengen Genocide, the Olympics mascot Beijing doesn’t want to talk about.

Please watch it, and then pass it along.

From the Associated Press (June 11)

The prosecutor of the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal will seek an arrest warrant Monday charging Sudan’s president with crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, a move U.N. diplomats warned could bring a backlash from Sudan’s government.

U.N. officials and diplomats said the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court would seek an indictment charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with orchestrating violence in Darfur that has left hundreds of thousands of people dead.

Woops, bad timing for al-Bashir and the rest of the thuggish regime in Khartoum. For years, Beijing has been the chief financial and political enabler of the mass-murder in Darfur, but with China’s role in the genocide increasingly being tied to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and with the games only weeks away, Beijing may have to throw its partner in genocide under the bus, at least publicly. The AP piece continues:

China’s U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose nation is an ally of Sudan, expressed concern that bringing charges against al-Bashir could jeopardize peace talks and put peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers in Darfur at greater risk.

“It’s one of the implications we have to consider,” he said.

Wow, talk about a luke-warm reaction.  Of course, the Chinese ambassador failed to mention that the need for peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers is due to Khartoum’s mass-slaughter in Darfur in the first place…a mass-slaughter that Beijing has enabled over the years.  Nor does the ambassador actually defend al-Bashir.  Kind of sounds like the regime in Khartoum  will have to do without overt support from its fellow thugs in Beijing…at least until after the Olympics.

For background and information about China’s outrageous economic and political complicity in the genocide in Darfur, check out Regime Watch’s Darfur archive here.

This morning regime watch hit two thousand page views. As I said when the blog hit one thousand page views, I don’t really know what this means considering the many thousands of blogs out there…but it seems like a pretty hefty number to me. The majority of visitors continue to come from within the United States, followed by the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. About twelve percent of visitors come from “other” countries. Welcome and thanks to you all.

The first post on regime watch was about my article “Misery: China’s Main Export,” which describes Communist China’s moral illegitimacy to host the 2008 Olympics, and which was first published in the excellent weekly Colorado newspaper, Johnstown Breeze. Here it is, re-printed in its entirety. And again, thanks to everyone who found their way to this blog…hope you come back from time to time.

In 2005, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo introduced a resolution into the House of Representatives calling on the U.S. Olympic Committee to change the venue of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing among other things, the “egregious violations of human rights” by China.

And indeed, while Communist China is well qualified to host an international gathering of thugs and tyrants, the regime’s moral legitimacy as host of the Olympics is another matter entirely.

In May 2007, The Hill—a Washington, D.C. newspaper that covers Congress—reported on “a quiet lobbying campaign” in Washington by China in an attempt to “deflect threats that the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing will be boycotted because of what critics say is a Chinese failure to help end genocidal violence in Darfur.”

Actually, far from simply failing to help end the slaughter, China’s outright complicity in the genocide being perpetrated by the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum against non-Arab tribes-people in the Darfur region of Sudan is well established

A March 2007 report from the Washington D.C.-based Heritage Foundation notes that China’s huge investment in Sudan oil in turn helps fund the genocide in Darfur, “Khartoum has doubled its defense budget in recent years, spending 60 percent to 80 percent of its estimated $500 million in annual oil revenue—half from China—on weapons. Some of these weapons find their way to the conflict in Darfur.”

Beijing has also helped subvert international arm embargoes against Khartoum. As the Heritage report continues, “Moreover, with Chinese assistance, the Sudanese government recently built three weapons factories.”

So with China’s help, the Janjaweed militias carrying out the genocide in Darfur are not only well-armed, but have also received military transportation and helicopter gunship support from Khartoum, making the slaughter all the more efficient.

In 2006, China not only abstained from a United Nations Security Council Resolution authorizing the deployment of troops and civilian police into Darfur to provide security against the genocide, but also used its veto power to force language into the resolution requiring the consent of the same Khartoum regime whose mass-murder in Darfur created the need for an international security force in the first place.

But the lobbying campaign didn’t work out as Beijing may have hoped. In May 2007, Congressman Tom Lantos (D-Ca.) released a letter to the Chinese President signed by over 100 members of Congress, including Colorado’s Tancredo stating, among other things, “…unless China does its part to ensure that the government of Sudan accepts the best and most reasonable path to peace, history will judge your government as having bank-rolled a genocide.”

The letter continues, “If China fails to do its part, it risks being forever known as the host of the ‘Genocide Olympics.’ ”

Besides enabling genocide in Darfur, China is also well into its fiftieth year of a military occupation of Tibet. Many thousands of Tibetans—including Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama—are forced to live in exile around the world

Last year, Beijing showed its hyper-sensitivity to having its thuggish occupation of Tibet tied to the Olympics by detaining and then deporting Colorado resident Kirsten Westby and four other Americans for peacefully displaying a banner saying “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008” on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest.

The slogan was a clever play on Beijing’s own cynical slogan for the 2008 Olympics, “One World, One Dream.”

In addition, Beijing is again threatening violence against the peaceful and democratic island nation of Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignty—even though it is plainly obvious that Taiwan function as an independent state—and that only Beijing may represent Taiwan’s 23 million citizens in international organizations.

In 2005, Beijing enacted an “Anti-Secession Law” which codified China’s already long-standing threats against Taiwan. Article eight of the law mandates the use of “Non-peaceful” means against Taiwan if, among other things, “a major event occurs which would lead to Taiwan’s separation from China.”

After more than a decade of being turned down for United Nations membership under its traditional name “Republic of China,” Taiwan is planning a national referendum this year over whether to formally apply for UN membership under the name “Taiwan.”

Beijing recently stated that Taiwan’s referendum represents the kind of “major event” that would allow the regime to invoke article eight against Taiwan.

So Communist China is desperately trying to put on a friendly face for the Olympics while at the same time threatening one of Asia’s most dynamic representative democracies.

The eyes of the world will be on Beijing for the summer games, making the 2008 Olympics a unique opportunity to shine an international spotlight on the misery China exports around the globe.

Mia Farrow’s advocacy against the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan has been both passionate and relentless.  Here is Mia on You Tube asking Beijing to stop enabling the genocidal regime in Khartoum.

Over at the Independence Institute’s podcast site, ivoices.org, radio host Amy Oliver interviews me on the basics of the “Genocide Olympics”.

It’s from last year, but is just as relevant today. If you want a primer on the relationship between the regime in Beijing and the regime in Khartoum, and how China has not only helped fund the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, but has also armed and given political cover to its perpetrators, give it a listen (MP3 compatible).

The term “Genocide Olympics” refers to the fact that China, the host nation of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, is complicit in the genocide in Darfur, and therefore lacks the moral legitimacy to host the Olympics.

From a recent report by Human Rights First, “Investing in Tragedy: China’s money, arms and politics in Sudan”

Through its growing oil revenues, the government of Sudan has also been able to expand its purchasing of arms, which are being used to sustain the violence in Darfur. For decades China has sold Sudan arms, but its small arms exports to Sudan have increased significantly in the last several years. From 1999 to 2005, a period that includes the start of the Darfur crisis, Sudan’s imports of small arms increased by 680 percent, and from 2004 to 2006, China made up an average of 90 percent of those small arms sales to Sudan. From 2003 to 2006, China sold over $55 million worth of small arms to Khartoum.

In order to protect its client regime, Beijing uses its clout on the UN Security Council to give Khartoum political cover. The report continues:

China has also provided robust political support for the government of Sudan in spite of the violence in Darfur. This is clearly demonstrated in the way China has repeatedly obstructed United Nation Security Council efforts to take action to stop the violence in Darfur by threatening to veto resolutions addressing the conflict. Between 2004 and 2007, the Security Council debated 14 substantive resolutions about Darfur, and China used its power to weaken nine of them. On most occasions, China forced the removal of tough language, including the threat or imposition of targeted economic sanctions.

Beijing and Khartoum, a match made in…well, it sure isn’t heaven.

Human Rights First also has an online petition to stop arms sales to Sudan.

It’s often easy to dismiss celebrities and their causes, think movie stars discussing carbon footprints…just before they hop on the private jet to Cannes or Aspen.

But Mia Farrow’s advocacy for the victims of the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan seems the real deal…passionate, articulate and relentless.

It was Ms. Farrow who dubbed the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as the “Genocide Olympics” in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, eloquently laying out Beijing’s economic and political complicity in the mass-slaughter.

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported on Farrow’s one-woman protest during Olympic torch ceremonies in Hong Kong:

Actress Mia Farrow urged Beijing today to help stop the killings in Sudan’s western Darfur region, staging a peaceful, one-woman protest on the sidelines of the Hong Kong leg of the Olympic torch relay.

The 63-year-old actress held aloft her own torch, which she said honored victims of genocide, near Hong Kong’s government headquarters — away from the Olympic torch route.

“As the games approach, China has the opportunity to change the course of history,” she said.

Sad, but true. Last May, President Bush cut off certain government-run companies involved in the Sudan oil business, and several individuals suspected in involvement in the slaughter in Darfur from the U.S. banking system. But the fact is that the regime in Khartoum doesn’t really need the U.S. banking system as long as it has the economic backing of Beijing. From the Heritage Foundation’s Peter Brookes in 2007:

Over the last decade, Beijing’s energy firms have invested between $3 billion and $10 billion in the Sudanese energy sector, stuffing at least $250 million a year into Khartoum’s pockets.

The hundreds of millions of dollars from Beijing help prop up Khartoum’s arsenal, making the genocide all the more efficient. Brookes continues:

Beijing also helps arm Khartoum. As a result of its energy profits, Sudan has doubled its defense budget in recent years, spending 60 percent to 80 percent of its oil revenue on weapons – arms mostly made in China.

Moreover, with Chinese assistance, the Sudanese government may have built a number of weapons factories – further frustrating any efforts at a reasonably air-tight arms embargo.

So the power to actually and substantially impact an ongoing genocide lays with a regime that has no interest in exercising that power in any positive way.

The Times piece continues about Farrow:

Farrow, who has dubbed the Beijing games the “genocide Olympics,” said she has lobbied Chinese officials in New York on Darfur.

Recalling one meeting, she said one Chinese official asked her why activists didn’t highlight Beijing’s humanitarian work in Darfur.

Farrow said she replied, “Here in America, when something’s wrong with our car and we take it to the mechanic, we don’t say what’s right with our car. We say what’s wrong with our car.”

She added, “Maybe I’m not the most tactful person … but I’m not a liar.”

Don’t sweat it, Ms. Farrow, this is genocide we’re talking about here and you’re doing great. Tact is for the diplomats who sip cocktails with mass-murderers, and we’ll leave the lying to the genocide enablers in Beijing.

For more on Darfur, see dreamfordarfur.org

The Washington Post is reporting that actress Mia Farrow has been admitted into Hong Kong ahead of today’s Olympic torch ceremonies in Hong Kong.  As Beijing well knows, Miss farrow has been one of the driving forces in bringing attention to China’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The regime in Beijing must really be feeling the pressure.

From Farrow’s excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal from last year, The ‘Genocide Olympics’

China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing purchases an overwhelming majority of Sudan’s annual oil exports and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. — an official partner of the upcoming Olympic Games — owns the largest shares in each of Sudan’s two major oil consortia. The Sudanese government uses as much as 80% of proceeds from those sales to fund its brutal Janjaweed proxy militia and purchase their instruments of destruction: bombers, assault helicopters, armored vehicles and small arms, most of them of Chinese manufacture. Airstrips constructed and operated by the Chinese have been used to launch bombing campaigns on villages. And China has used its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the U.S. and the U.K. to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the slaughter.

My own piece on China’s enabling of the genocide in Darfur from the Aspen Times here.

With China’s thuggish occupation of Tibet on display to the world, Beijing is showing its true colors. Read the Krause op-ed, “Misery:  China’s main export” on China’s moral illegitimacy to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.  First published in the excellent Colorado weekly paper, Johnstown Breeze.

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