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.”

What is even more troubling than the airtight relationship between China and Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) is the power of the Oil Gang in China – led by Zhou. According to Garnaut, this group has “obstructed efforts by President Hu and others to support international sanctions against Sudan.”

From the outside, it sure looks like Hu has a convenient excuse not to  take any dramatic steps to challenge Khartoum’s deadly policies in Darfur, failure to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and enact true political reforms. Yet, this is the very reason why Save Darfur has urged President Obama not only to use moral suasion with the Chinese but appeal directly to their own national interests: keeping oil freely flowing (something impossible, for example, if war erupts again between the North and South).  This type of realist case for tying incentives for the NCP directly to sustainable peace in Sudan has the real potential to influence even Khartoum’s closest supporters like Mr. Zhou.

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.

First posted at Save Darfur….please also see my colleague Robert’s post with our initial reaction to the Sudan Policy Review.

This morning Secretary Clinton, Ambassador Rice, and General Gration all spoke of the “sense of urgency” in dealing with Sudan’s interlocking crises.  Two breaking headlines from Sudan today confirm the urgent necessity of finding a durable solution to Darfur and preventing the collapse of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

First, Bloomberg News is reporting that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement announced today that it will boycott parliament for a week to pressure the country’s ruling party to amend bills including one that gives “unlimited powers” to intelligence services.  This move comes after a weekend where the National Congress Party and SPLM reached a tentative compromise on the referendum.Yet, this progress was not enough to meet the SPLM’s ultimatum last week that gave parliament a week to make significant progress on a number of pieces of critical legislation:

“We want to see a parliamentary schedule for the discussion of all the nine laws,” Yasser Arman, head of the former rebel group’s northern sector, told reporters today in Khartoum. “The current security law allows for detention, search and arrest, and gives a lot of immunity to the security body. And this is against the constitution.”

Arman goes on to say that the NCP now has until October 26; otherwise the SPLM will boycott the remaining sessions in parliament that run until November 30.

The other troubling news comes from UNAMID, the African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur, which released the following warning about a noticeable increase in military activities in Darfur:

UNAMID personnel in the field have recently observed a sizable and unusual increase in military activities by the Government of Sudan (GoS) and Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid Faction (SLA/AW) forces, notably in the areas of Sortony and Kabkabiya in North Darfur. UNAMID is gravely concerned by this build-up as it may signal the impending start of a new cycle of armed confrontations in the area.

UNAMID wishes to emphasize that armed clashes invariably result in casualties and fatalities among combatants and in dire consequences for the civilian population, with loss of life, destruction of property, and massive displacement, thus negating the gains made so far in attempts to restore peace to Darfur.

UNAMID solemnly calls on all parties involved to refrain from resorting to violence and reiterates its conviction that the only way for a peaceful resolution of the conflict is through dialogue and negotiations.

These troubling reports demonstrate why – as Secretary Clinton remarked – the conflicts and issues in Sudan “cannot be ignored or willed away” and why the U.S. government must immediately begin implementing a policy that “empowers the people of Sudan to solve their own problems.”  The status quo no doubt portends the worse for Sudanese.  The complex diplomatic tasks at hand require – as we have called – the full leveraging of every relevant piece of the U.S. government and the generation from the administration of multilateral, coordinated support.