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Dictator country, hand in hand

China's grip on Africa tightens at record speed, while the country is blowing UN sanctions against African dictators and war criminals.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

The Foreign Affairs Committee recently returned from a week-long trip to Japan and China. The China trip was the first after the Peace Prize award to regime critic Liu Xiaobo in 2010 and China's subsequent political boycott of Norway, which lasted until Christmas 2016. Then came a kind of normalization agreement, in which Norway pledged caution in the mention of China and the country's persistent human rights violations. Norway has followed up China's demands, and the agreement can therefore be said to have been successful.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg was also on a successful official China visit in April 2017, which was concluded with a Norwegian invitation to China's President Xi Jinping. The then Storting President Olemic Thommesen was on a similar visit in January this year – with his Nordic colleagues – and a large university delegation was in China this spring. In addition, Norwegian salmon exports to China have more than doubled since January 2017.

Before the Foreign Affairs Committee left, members met to discuss what matters they should raise with their Chinese hosts. The SV and the Left proposed to discuss China's Muslim minorities, such as the Uyghurs, who, according to a UN report, are suppressed and held in detention camps. The Committee took note of this proposal.

The Foreign Affairs Committee should have asked the Chinese whether the presence of war criminals Bashir and Kiir was a deliberate undermining of UN authority.

There are several other issues the committee could have discussed with its hosts. For example, China is by far Africa's most important economic and political partner. The Foreign Affairs Committee's visit temporarily coincided with the annual meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on September 3 and 4, where many hundreds of African top politicians, generals, officials and businessmen were to be seen. The African leaders met the tops of China's government and the Communist Party – so did the Norwegian parliamentary delegation.

In China's grip

China's assistance to Africa is large and growing. Chinese banks and companies are investing more than ever in credit and loans to African countries, and Chinese companies are investing across the continent. China is a leading global player in terms of overall economic relations with Africa.

The main thing during this year's China-Africa Forum was China's infrastructure investment. This included the new Djibouti major port, an upcoming Somaliland port, port, oil terminal and oil pipeline as well as the establishment of a Lamu metropolis on the north coast of Kenya. All in all, these are investments of tens of billions of NOK. 

Omar Bashir ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP

In collaboration with African states, China plans major continental railways and roads from east to west in Africa: With Chinese (state) companies as investors and developers, The Continental Bridge will be linked to the new silk roads from China. One of these will go to Europe, another through Pakistan to ports and transport routes across the Indian Ocean. Promoting at the Horn of Africa the transport will be by road and rail. 

Parallel to the development of The Continental Bridge, new major ports will also be erected in West Africa – the first in Douala in Cameroon. Traffic on the sea route between West Africa and South America is to be radically increased.

The Chinese state leadership thinks in a visionary and long-term perspective – completely different from their European and North American counterparts. 

The country is in the process of getting an infrastructure-based, economic and political grip on Africa that is unparalleled in history; China may soon become a greater empire in Africa than any European state has ever been.

dictator hits

One of the African guests in Beijing was Sudan's dictator Omar Bashir. Following the Darfur genocide, he is charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and all UN member states are required to arrest and hand over Bashir to the Hague Court. But since Sudan is a particularly important partner country for China, Bashir is allowed to travel freely both out and in of China and virtually all UN member countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Ugandan authoritarian and arrogant President Yoweri Museveni leads the group in the African Union that will have collective African withdrawal from the ICC because of the charges against Bashir and other African political leaders. He has spoken contemptuously of the UN sanctions against South Sudan and has said that Uganda will ignore the UN arms boycott resolution of the country. Uganda is therefore still the most important transit country for arms deliveries from China, Ukraine, Belarus, Egypt and Israel as well as from black exchange sharks in the international illicit arms market to the regime in South Sudan's capital Juba. Museveni was a prominent guest during the China-Africa Forum in Beijing.

The money goes

South Sudan's president and dictator Salva Kiir was also an important forum participant. As early as August 28, he arrived in China to spend a few vacation days there ahead of the meeting. Kiir is by far the main culprit in the devastating civil war in South Sudan, which has led to the deaths of more than 300 people – and is highly qualified for an ICC indictment for crimes against humanity. But again – this is something China does not care about due to its large investments in oil and other activities in the country. Then it is business as usual.

Yoweri Museveni. Getty Images/POOL/Jack Taylor

China put considerable pressure on the parties to the peace talks on South Sudan, which went on in Khartoum throughout the summer and ended recently in Addis Ababa. China wanted a peace agreement in place, cost what it would cost, and the first part of the agreement therefore had as its main ingredient that special forces from Sudan and South Sudan jointly take control of the disputed areas where the South Sudanese oil is extracted. This de facto occupation was completed from mid-August. Chinese experts on the repair of broken oil installations moved almost into the heels of the soldiers, and with Chinese efficiency, the first production tests were carried out as early as the first days of September. A week later, the recovery went as before, and now the oil is flowing from South Sudan via Sudan to the shipping port at the Red Sea, Port Sudan. According to South Sudan's oil minister, the regime in Juba can expect a profit of more than NOK 8 billion on oil exports this fall. The money will mainly go to China, in addition to large (South) Sudanese repayments on loans and loans – as well as the oil itself. 

Although there seems to be a total lack of interest in Norwegian political parties – except for the KrF and the Right – both for Africa and for Norwegian aid and development policy, the Foreign Committee members should have asked the Chinese representatives what the country really wants with their African involvement. The Norwegian Committee should also have confronted the Chinese with the presence of Bashir and Kiir  - and asked for answers as to whether this is a deliberate expression of a systematic undermining of the ICCs – and thus the UN – authority on the part of China.

failure Shame

In July, another important meeting took place in Beijing, namely the newly created China-Africa Defense and Security Policy Forum. Important in this context is that China is a major exporter of all types of weapons to African states. The meeting included dozens of African defense ministers and army chiefs – one of whom was Sudan's army chief, General Gabriel Jok Riak. The UN Security Council has imposed a number of sanctions on member states against Riak and eight other politicians and military leaders in South Sudan: All their bank accounts must be seized and they should not be allowed to leave the country. No international airline is allowed to take them on board its passenger aircraft. The nine are held responsible for mass murder of their own population and are part of the kleptocracy that has robbed South Sudan of an incredible 60-70 billion kroner since 2005. But Riak and the others travel as they please, and especially to China – as if the UN Security Council had not adopted any of the world's things.

It's strange that the Norwegian Foreign Committee failed to address these issues during its recent China visit, especially as Norway is again fighting for a seat on the UN Security Council: What does Norway have to do, unless we are aware that this type of UN – Decisions to be respected?

Halle Jørn Hanssen
Halle Jørn Hanssen
Former Secretary General of Norwegian People's Aid, TV correspondent, politician and author.

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