Brains Like a Shoe

Zhou Yongkang of the Communist Party of China andSudanese Vice President Ali Osman Tah meet in Khartoum

First posted at Save Darfur…

To close the week, more information on the China/Sudan deal reported first in the Sudanese press and covered here on Wednesday and breaking in the English-language press today.

John Garnaut at The Sydney Morning Herald details the power of security chief Zhou Yongkang who led the Chinese delegation to Sudan.  Garnaut describes the contingent from Beijing as “almost as impressive as Obama’s” and writes:

Zhou could not have made his visit to Sudan without the party leadership considering how it might affect the Obama-Hu Jintao spectacle in Beijing. Ostensibly, however, he and Bashir were simply getting down to business. They unveiled the first Khartoum-Beijing direct flights, opened a Confucius Institute, signed an agriculture agreement and agreed to jointly pump yet more oil.

The article also gives more of the back-story on China’s investments in Sudan:

Back in 1995 Zhou Yongkang was working his way to the top of China’s biggest oil company, Petrochina. He had close connections with another oil industry veteran, Zeng Qinghong, who happened to be a powerbroker for the then president, Jiang Zemin. Zhou and Zeng were the drivers and Jiang was the decision maker behind China’s hugely controversial decision to exploit Sudan’s oil reserves at a time when Western companies could not afford the political or reputation risk, according to several Chinese oil industry and foreign policy sources…This week, Zhou gave a modest account of that personal history.

”Fourteen years ago, then Chinese president Jiang Zemin and you made the strategic decision to start China-Sudan oil co-operation, and our bilateral pragmatic co-operation has since entered a stage of fast development,” Zhou recounted to Bashir, on the delayed CCTV report. Bashir was quick to give Zhou some personal glory.

“You are the important promoter of the Sudan-China oil project, the Sudanese people have special affection towards you,” said Bashir. “Sudan-China oil co-operation not only brought Sudan oil but also peace.”

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Zhou Yongkang of the Communist Party of China and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha

First posted at Save Darfur…

While President Barack Obama was meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday in Beijing, top Sudanese government officials were inking a new deal with a visiting Chinese delegation in Khartoum.  Not yet covered by the English-language press, Al-Rai Al-Aam(an Arabic-language Sudanese newspaper that leans heavily to Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party) ran a leading story this morning with the headline: “The government welcomes China’s plan for joint cooperation.”

The series of agreements brokered between the two governments comes two days after the announcement of the first non-stop flight between Beijing and Khartoum. The multi-layered package of support will focus cooperation in four fields: energy, infrastructure, agriculture and food, and training and capacity building.  There was also a commitment to develop stronger national ties by opening cultural centers and connecting universities.

Of probably greatest importance, China pledged to work with Sudan to double its oil production and continue to finance large-scale development projects.  To those ends, the two parties signed two loans worth a collective $46 million and a grant of $11 million.

Xinhua reports that senior Communist Party of China (CPC) officials hailed their country’s relations with Sudan in their public comments.  Zhou Yongkang of the CPC said that he was “pleased to see that Sudan has become one of the fast growing economies in Africa and has improved its people’s standards of living while advancing national reconciliation.”

He also stated that:

Sudan has become China’s third largest trade partner in Africa…China is Sudan’s largest trade partner…Zhou said 2009, which also marks the 10th anniversary of an oil cooperation project between the two countries, is an important year in the history of the Chinese-Sudanese friendship.

In order to enhance the bilateral relationship, China and Sudan should promote political mutual trust, deepen their economic and trade cooperation and expand their exchanges.

With this visit, the Chinese delegation has unabashedly affirmed China’s long-term support of the Sudanese government. The fact that this deal was struck while Obama was in China makes the presidential silence on Sudan – that Jerry addressed this morning – so much more glaring.