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China's Darfur policy in tune with law, morality

By Ren Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-25 07:30

The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide and crimes against humanity and thus once again stirred up a controversy over issues of international law and international morality, which need to be discussed seriously.

For China, its diplomacy, including policymaking and the philosophy of its foreign affairs, is facing new challenges after having yielded tremendous achievements and made phenomenal changes both internally and externally in the past 30 years of reform and opening-up.

Generally, China's diplomatic thoughts and practices mainly originate from the following aspects: First, universally accepted norms, standards and customs of international relations that have formed the basis of the world order.

Second, the heritage of traditional Chinese thinking and culture such as magnanimity, embodied by Confucius's millenniums-old saying of "do not do to others what you would not have them do to you".

Third, reflection on the humiliating history the Chinese nation suffered because of invasions of imperialists since the two opium wars (1839-42 and 1856-60 respectively).

Fourth, summing-up of diplomatic practices since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, especially what has been experienced since the reform and opening- up started.

It is in the process of reform internally and the opening-up externally China has formed its own principles of morality by combining universally conducted norms with its own ideals. These principles of Chinese characteristic that also match widely acknowledged moral norms, have been the pillars of China's diplomacy.

The Darfur issue is no doubt a challenge for China's diplomacy. In brief, the issue is a humanitarian crisis triggered by lack of enough water and other resources. The long conflicts between the Sudanese government and local rebellious militias have led to a large number of people becoming homeless.

As reasons behind the current situation may be very complicated, we hereby only discuss how other countries should handle the situation if they follow the principles of morality and carry out actions accordingly.

Last Monday, the Hague-based ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir.

As the indictment involves too much discussion about international law, it might be more suitable to first probe what kind of consequences it will bring.

There can be little doubt that the human rights of the people - in the Darfur region, in this case - should be respected and protected at first, as the humanitarian spirit takes top priority.

However, human rights are not abstract but should be specifically reflected in cases and enjoyed by people. So the first important step is to satisfy people's basic needs for residence and food and keep them safe from threats, without which discussions of anything else would be meaningless.

In doing so, we should focus on offering constructive efforts to help restore peace in the Darfur region so that lives of people there would no longer be threatened by war. Therefore, the ICC's indictment is like to take us nowhere but to the opposite direction at a time when the situation there has in fact been improving.

By contrast, China's proposals and actions in dealing with the issue, both diplomatic and non-diplomatic ones, conform to principles of morality. The country's principles-based stance has been reflected on aspects as the following:

First, diplomatic persuasion. Patient persuasion, rather than exerting pressure, has always been exemplifying China's diplomatic style.

China has done much work in persuading the Sudanese government in recent years. The following are two examples: in early November, 2006 when the Sino-African Cooperative Forum was held in Beijing, Chinese President Hu Jintao said to visiting Sudanese President al-Bashir that the Darfur issue has become critical in the wake of the adoption of Resolution 1706 by the United Nations Security Council, and that China hopes Sudan can strengthen dialogue and consultation with all sides to stabilize the regional situation and improve humanitarian conditions. Al-Bashir finally accepted the stationing of a joint force from the African Union (AU) and the UN peacekeeping force in the Darfur region.

And in February last year, Hu suggested four principles in solving the issue while visiting Sudan during his trip to several African countries: respect for Sudan's sovereignty and territory integrity; dialogue, equal consultation and peaceful means in solving the problems; constructive roles taken by the African Union and the UN; stability of the local situation and improvements in living conditions for local people.

The first imperative is to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire and speed up political negotiation, which would exclude factions who did not sign the Darfur Peace Agreement. These proposals met with and balanced different interests and worked positively.

Second, providing practical help to local people. China has delivered five batches of assistance to the Darfur region at a combined value of 80 million yuan ($11 million).

Furthermore, the country also provided a $50-million loan to the region in supporting the construction of local water facility, which is now being undertaken, and contributed $500,000 to the UN trust fund, which was specially established in September, last year to fund mediation efforts putting forward the political process of the Darfur issue.

Third, bringing about an agreement among the UN, the AU, and the Sudanese government on the deployment of UN/AU "hybrid mission" in Darfur, and sending its own peacekeeping force of 315 engineers, too, as the first non-African country to send peacekeepers there.

Fourth, engaging in multilateral diplomacy and explaining the situation to the international community.

China has taken many efforts in doing so such as sending Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun as envoy of the Chinese government to visit Sudan and its Darfur region and get a first-hand grasp of the situation. Later former Chinese ambassador to South Africa Liu Guijin was appointed as special representative on the Darfur issue. In fact, Liu has visited Sudan four times and had many other occasions to discuss the issue with relevant sides.

All the above evidence is testimony to the consistency between China's diplomacy on Darfur and principles of morality. To ease and finally solve the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region, constructive actions and concrete measures must be taken and the moral principles followed.

The author is a professor at Institute of International Studies, Fudan University

(China Daily 07/25/2008 page8)