China's Role in Darfur

Speakers at the Dream for Darfur Rally :

Below is an excerpt from a speech at the Amherst Dream for Darfur rally last fall about China's role in the genocide in Darfur:

Since February of 2003, over 400,000 Sudanese people have been killed. Over two million Sudanese people have been displaced, forced to live in refugee camps in Sudan and neighboring countries. The Janjaweed, the military force behind these atrocities, have used not only bombs and terror, but also rape and mutilation as weapons. The violence has destroyed entire villages, separated children and their parents, brothers and their sisters, husbands and their wives.

The Janjaweed is clearly supported by the Sudanese government, and the Sudanese government is clearly supported by China, economically, militarily and politically. China accounts for 70% of the Sudan’s global oil exports and 70% of Sudanese oil profits go to the Sudanese military. The same Sudanese military that is funding and committing the genocide of the Darfuri people.

China is also the largest foreign investor in the Sudan, and the Sudan’s largest global trading partner. China donates significant amounts of monetary aid to the Sudanese government each year. Yet up until July of this year, China sat idly by as the people of Darfur were massacred, raped and exiled. Even now, it has acted only within the UN. Furthermore, the UN troops China and the world voted unanimously to send to Darfur have yet to materialize.

Now, in 2008, China will hold the Summer Olympics, an event that serves as much more than a forum for athletic competition. The Olympic Games represent peace among and within nations. They are a time of international collaboration and friendly competition. And now, activists can use the games to call attention to the suffering of the people of Darfur.

We’re asking China to make the following demands of the government in Khartum:

Khartum must disarm the Janjaweed militias and adhere to previously agreed upon ceasefires.

Khartum must stop the bombing of civilian targets.

Khartum must allow unfettered humanitarian access to Darfur.

If Khartum does not agree to these demands, China must announce a series of consequences, and China must follow through. Furthermore, China must immediately suspend all weapon transfers to the Sudan. This is the least that they can do.


As long as China refuses to take action, the horrors in Darfur will continue.