The NY Times had an analysis this morning – <\/p>\n
China, in New Role, Presses Sudan on Darfur – New York Times<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n KHARTOUM, Sudan<\/a> \u2014 Amid the international outrage over the bloodshed in Darfur<\/a>, frustration has increasingly turned toward China, Sudan\u2019s biggest trading partner and international protector, culminating in Steven Spielberg<\/a>\u2019s decision last week to withdraw as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics. <\/p>\n And it may be working. <\/p>\n China has begun shifting its position on Darfur, stepping outside its diplomatic comfort zone to quietly push Sudan to accept the world\u2019s largest peacekeeping force, diplomats and analysts say. <\/p>\n It has also acted publicly, sending engineers to help peacekeepers in Darfur and appointing a special envoy to the region who has toured refugee camps and pressed the Sudanese government to change its policies. <\/p>\n Few analysts expect China to walk away from its business ties to Sudan, but its willingness to take up the issue is a rare venture into something China swears it never does \u2014 meddle in the internal affairs of its trading partners. <\/p>\n \u201cChina in my view has been very cooperative,\u201d said Andrew S. Natsios, the former special envoy of President Bush to Sudan. \u201cThe level of coordination and cooperation has been improving each month.\u201d<\/p>\n For all of China\u2019s billion-dollar oil contracts, multimillion-dollar arms shipments and Security Council veto protection of Sudan, the global power with the biggest influence over the country has scarcely a dime invested here, has no ambassador on Sudanese soil and has slapped progressively tougher sanctions on its government: the United States. <\/p>\n While conventional wisdom holds that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have sapped America\u2019s prestige and power, especially in Muslim countries, the United States remains the gatekeeper to international respectability in the eyes of the Sudanese government, and its power to influence top officials here \u2014 through threats or inducements \u2014 remains unmatched, diplomats, Sudanese government officials and analysts say. <\/p>\n \u201cComing to some sort of agreement with the United States is the Holy Grail of Sudanese politics,\u201d said a senior Western diplomat in Khartoum, who was not authorized to speak publicly. \u201cNo one has been able to deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n >>>>>><\/p>\n … John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration official, advocate and writer on Sudan for two decades, said that China and the United States needed to be engaged. <\/p>\n \u201cUnless China and the U.S. are both exerting much more pressure on Sudan, the crisis will continue to spiral out of control,\u201d he said in an e-mail message. \u201cChina has unique economic leverage, while the U.S. retains leverage based on its ability to confer or withdraw legitimacy.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NY Times had an analysis this morning – China, in New Role, Presses Sudan on Darfur – New York Times KHARTOUM, Sudan \u2014 Amid the international outrage over the bloodshed in Darfur, frustration has increasingly turned toward China, Sudan\u2019s biggest trading partner and international protector, culminating in Steven Spielberg\u2019s decision last week to withdraw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6216,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3958\/revisions\/6216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n