The unusual UN Security Council meeting in Nigeria today and tomorrow will address the north-south peace process in Sudan and explore additional options to pressure Khartoum to end the ongoing crisis in Darfur.
The meeting, coincidentally, highlights China's role in the security council, and its growing interests in Sudan and Africa since the end of the cold war. China's longstanding diplomatic investments and newer interests in trade and energy establish it as an influential player in Africa. China increasingly has the opportunity to fulfil its aspirations to be a 'responsible power' and work with the US and the international community to help promote security, economic and social development in Africa. US President George W. Bush has a similar opportunity to consider approaches to engage China to help further these interests in Africa.
China's interests in Africa have evolved from aspirations to lead the developing world during the cold war, to solidifying its circumstances in an increasingly globalised world through diplomacy, investment and trade. African countries provide China with a market for cheap goods, as well as an advantageous environment for companies to invest in manufacturing and infrastructure that ensures access to energy and raw materials. Chinese companies are particularly competitive in countries where unreliable political situations, sanctions or other potential liabilities keep large multinationals from committing themselves.
China also has a long history of providing aid, has committed peacekeepers to UN deployments in Liberia and Congo, sponsored Africans to study in Chinese universities and sent medical, agricultural and engineering teams to provide technical aid to African countries to support projects from dams and factories to treating Aids patients.
China's rapidly growing demand for imported oil and other raw materials over the past two years has revealed the extent of its investments in such industries in Africa. In September, Beijing's reluctance to support a security council resolution against Sudan over the Darfur crisis highlighted its evolving interests, illustrated by the fact that oil from Sudan comprises 5 per cent of China's total oil imports and almost 60 per cent of Sudan's exports.
China is actively promoting itself to anxious neighbours as a 'responsible power', as its military modernisation and economic growth fuel demand for a steady supply of oil and resources. Beijing shares a common interest with the international community to stabilise the situation in Darfur, so it does not have to oppose new sanctions that might threaten Sudan's oil exports as well as China's reputation. Indeed, it is encouraging that China publicly raised the Darfur issue with the government in Khartoum for the first time in August, prompting officials to remain at the negotiating table and work with the international community towards resolving the crisis.
