http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0423/p07s02-woaf.html
China slammed for arming Zimbabwe's Mugabe
China said Tuesday it may turn away a ship full of weapons headed for
Zimbabwe's leader.
By Scott Baldauf and Peter Ford | Staff writers of The Christian
Science Monitor
NAIROBI, KENYA; and BEIJING, CHINA - Hammered by criticism over its
own human rights record and perhaps worried about its reputation ahead
of the upcoming Summer Olympics, China signaled Tuesday that it might
turn around a ship full of arms bound for its longtime ally, Zimbabwe.
The ship had docked first at South Africa's main port, Durban, where
South African dock workers refused to offload the nearly 3 million
rounds of AK-47 ammunition and thousands of rounds of rocket-propelled
grenades and mortars, all bound for the troubled regime of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe. Mozambique, Angola, and Namibia have also
said the ship is not welcome in their ports.
The apparent withdrawal of the arms shipment by China comes at a time
of growing criticism from African leaders for Mr. Mugabe's iron-fisted
handling of his domestic opposition in the March 29 elections =96 where
Mugabe's party fared badly in parliamentary elections and where the
presidential results have still not been released.
"There is clearly a change among African leaders, with Zambia and
Botswana changing their positions. The wall of silence toward Zimbabwe
by Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is broken," says
Marian Tupy, a Southern Africa expert at the Cato Institute in
Washington. "But what the rest of the world thinks matters little to
Mugabe," he adds.
China's history with Mugabe
For President Mugabe, China has been a longtime revolutionary friend
in times of need.
During the decade-long war against the white-dominated government of
Southern Rhodesia =96 as Zimbabwe used to be called =96 it was China that
supplied Mugabe's ZANU-PF liberation army with arms, training,
logistics, and funding.
But as China attempts to take a larger role on the global stage,
particularly in Africa, it is increasingly sensitive to foreign
opinions.
While a number of Western governments have criticized the arms
shipment, "China is most conscious of African reactions," says
Christopher Alden, an expert on Chinese-African relations at the
London School of Economics. "This is a response to African
governments' public criticism about potentially fueling a crisis."
Zambia, which chairs the SADC, had urged regional states to bar the An
Yue Jiang ship from entering their waters.
The South African trade union confederation, linked to that country's
ruling African National Congress (ANC), had also condemned the
shipment, warning that delivery of guns and ammunition to the army in
Zimbabwe under current circumstances would threaten peace in Zimbabwe.
By responding to changing African opinion =96 which appears increasingly
impatient with South African President Thabo Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy"
toward the Mugabe regime =96 Chinese leaders seem willing to temper
their old revolutionary support when it suits their larger economic
and diplomatic interests.
Learning to be a 'responsible player'?
"There is a trend =85 of China making decisions that reflect the
international perspective more than the narrow Chinese perspective,"
says David Zweig, a professor of Chinese international relations at
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He points to the
way Beijing has worked closely with western countries over Darfur for
the past year.
"China is learning on this," Professor Zweig adds. "They want to be a
responsible player" in world affairs.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu suggested Tuesday that
Beijing may abandon efforts to deliver the arms shipment bound for
Zimbabwe aboard the An Yue Jiang, in light of the ship's difficulty in
unloading the weapons.
"As far as I know the carrier is now considering carrying back the
cargo," Ms. Jiang told reporters.
Jiang insisted that the shipment was "perfectly normal trade in
military goods between China and Zimbabwe." She added that "the
relevant contract was signed last year and has nothing to do with the
latest situation in Zimbabwe."
The international row over the arms shipment illustrates the pitfalls
of China's growing involvement in Africa, and its difficulties in
avoiding domestic African politics.
COSATU, the South African trade union confederation whose members
refused to offload the Chinese weapons, has long complained about the
way cheap Chinese imports have destroyed jobs in the South African
textiles industry.
"This is the first time COSATU has been critical of China's political
presence" says Mr. Alden.
The shunned vessel has become an international embarrassment to China
at a time when the country's image has already been tarnished by the
troubled Olympic torch relay. The apparent decision to recall the
ammunition, rocket propelled grenades and mortars, seems designed to
curtail the incident.
But while China is attempting to be a more responsible player, Mr.
Alden says that the international controversies that have erupted
since unrest broke out in Tibet last month, and the imminence of the
Olympics, mean that Beijing "is in a heightened state of awareness of
international public opinion. This could be another embarrassment so
they are much quicker to re-jig their position in the light of
criticism."
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