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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| China invests in Sudan oil; Beijing supplies arms used on villagers |
| 2004-12-25 |
| On this parched and dusty African plain, China's largest energy company is pumping crude oil, sending it 1,000 miles upcountry through a Chinese-made pipeline to the Red Sea, where tankers wait to ferry it to China's industrial cities. Chinese laborers based in a camp of prefabricated sheds work the wells and lay highways across the flats to make way for heavy machinery. Only seven miles south, the rebel army that controls much of southern Sudan marches troops through this sun-baked town of mud huts. For years, the rebels have attacked oil installations, seeking to deprive the Sudan government of the wherewithal to pursue a civil war that has killed more than 2 million people and displaced 4 million from their homes over the past two decades. But the Chinese laborers are protected: They work under the vigilant gaze of Sudanese government troops armed largely with Chinese-made weapons -- a partnership of the world's fastest-growing oil consumer with a pariah state accused of fostering genocide in its western Darfur region. China's transformation from an insular, agrarian society into a key force in the global economy has spawned a voracious appetite for raw materials, sending its companies to distant points of the globe in pursuit -- sometimes to lands shunned by the rest of the world as rogue states. China's relationship with Sudan has become particularly deep, demonstrating that China's commercial relations are intensifying human rights concerns outside its borders while beginning to clash with U.S. policies and interests. Sudan is China's largest overseas oil project. China is Sudan's largest supplier of arms, according to a former Sudan government minister. Chinese-made tanks, fighter planes, bombers, helicopters, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades have intensified Sudan's two-decade-old north-south civil war. A cease-fire is in effect and a peace agreement is expected to be signed by year-end. But the fighting in Sudan's Darfur region rages on, as government-backed Arab militias push African tribes off their land. China in October signed a $70 billion oil deal with Iran, and the evolving ties between those two countries could complicate U.S. efforts to isolate Iran diplomatically or pressure it to give up its ambitions for nuclear weapons. China is also pursuing oil in Angola... No blood for oil? |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #4 I expect China will become the patron of all the repressive oil sheikdoms, mullahcracies, and dictatorships. What a trip. Godless communists allied with muslim supremists. An exact duplicate of leftist thinking in the west allied with islamists. Destroy the democratic free societies first and then fight each other for supremacy. People who buy products made in China finance this behavior. The cheap chinese trinkets bought today will ensure a world of war for your children when they grow up. Better to cut off this trade, rebuild our manufacturing base, and build a self sufficient energy production structure within the US. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-12-25 11:49:28 PM |
| #3 Since the financial guys always tell us what a bath we'll take if we don't work the Chinese market ("a billion customers" yeah, who make about $2.50/yr average, yawn), etc., I keep hearing a simple answer - like the proverbial birdie on my shoulder, and the Chineseness of it makes me smile... to smile inscrutably in their faces right up to the moment the bombing commences... And all that debt, all those Treasury Bonds. all that paper will be instantly worthless... And all those Chinese advisors floating around the globe... homeless. And all those massive inefficient state-sponsored projects falling idle... And the sudden glut of oil on the world market... I don't pretend to know the depth or breadth of the bath a few would take, but it would be paper, as opposed to jobs, and anyone who's in bed with the enemy of my country just earned himself derision and scorn, not sympathy. I do know they're the next serious threat, they will never cease until they are forcibly divided into a couple of dozen Republics, and their day of reckoning and mythology-busting has been a long time coming. I'd welcome removing all those junky products that have crowded better quality off the store shelves. So you saved $2.57 on that cordless phone - this one's made in the USA... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-25 11:00:30 PM |
| #2 Perhaps it's time to declare China a "terrorist state", as it has deserved since Mao took over. Preach it, .com. We could not agree more on this critical topic. Our war against Islamic jihadism will look like a speed-bump compared to navigating the containment of China's top-heavy kleptocracy. The communist mandarins are merely a massive-scale representation of what is happening in Iran. Be it ideological or religious authoritarianism, both are just as repugnant and of equal threat to our freedom. America's politicians are swayed through financial campaign contibutions made by domestic business interests, like Wal-Mart, which conduct heavy trade with communist China. Wal-Mart's imports represents a solid 10% of America's trade deficit with communist China. Wal-mart purchases $15 billion worth of goods in China each year. The world's biggest distributor, which has 42 stores in China, can sell 10 percent of its Chinese import in the US. The same Wal-Mart whose underpaid employees may be dragging down community services due to total absence of company benefits despite huge tax incentives awarded by area governments to encourage their outlet openings. The exact same communist China that is insolently threatening Taiwan's democracy and simultaneously strangling Hong Kong's in the cradle. The same China that is all the while promoting installation of well-armed genocidal terrorist autocracies in Sudan and especially North Korea, with its unsavory armaments proliferation to Iran. China is not our friend. If China sold all of our treasury notes at once, it would only depress their value at time of sale. They need us more than we need them. No other cartel of nations could possibly take up the slack of us cutting off Wal-Mart's Chinese orders alone. All of America boycotting China could melt it down in a few months time. China will always be hungry to expand so long as its communist mandarins hold the reins of power. China is financing its expansionism through sponsorship of terrorist, genocidal and proliferating nations. Any questions? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-12-25 10:06:47 PM |
| #1 Well whaddya know... I'm so astounded and surprised youcould knock me over with a feather... made of pig iron... Perhaps it's time to declare China a "terrorist state", as it has deserved since Mao took over. This is where the RB money guys jump in, methinks, to discuss the financial ramifications - trade deficits, bond and debt sales, interest rates, currency markets, etc... Weening us from them as a "trade partner" will, I'm sure, cause much squealing and pain, but the upside? |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-25 8:13:14 PM |