WHEATON—With a history of 20th century human rights problems as high as the Himalayans and every bit as chilly as Cold War diplomacy between the United States and Russia, the People’s Republic of China is being forced to prove that it can scale the heights of a more ethical 21st century-style global leadership. From a diplomatic point of view, the pressure is on for China to turn up the heat on Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, pushing him to remove the obstacles that diminish relief efforts by UN crisis organizations and other nonprofit faith groups attempting to provide food and medical assistance to 2.5 million displaced refugees within Sudan.

While China is also being asked to put a freeze on its military aid to the Sudanese government and its opponent, the Janjaweed militia, it did yield to the demands of the United Nations Security Council and collaborated with a plan to create a “hybrid United-Nations-African Union peacekeeping force to quell the violence and instability plaguing the Darfur region of Sudan,” according to a UN News Centre report issued July 31. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the plan as a “historic and unprecedented resolution.” The operation -- to be known as UNAMID -- received a 12-month mandate; it will mingle with the existing AU mission. As the “largest peacekeeping force in the world;” plans call for nearly 20,000 military personnel and more than 6,000 police officers, the report noted. By October, UNAMID is expected to be deployed. “Command and control structures and backstopping for UNAMID will be provided by the UN. …And the resolution will also have one chain of command,” according to the report.     

Nevertheless, the UN Security Council is further demanding that China, a voting member of the Security Council, to abandon its non-interference policy toward Sudan and to embrace a stance that supports a strong peacekeeping resolution. Pressure is mounting from prominent global powers in an effort to move China to adopt an ethical and moral position about the genocidal atrocities in Darfur. For China, it means a willingness to sacrifice Sudanese oil resources for a plan that rejects violence against the overwhelming majority of innocent people.

Caritas International along with Catholic Relief Services is working to provide crisis intervention in Sudan. The Save Darfur Coalition has gained the support of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops and Network, a Catholic social justice lobby organization in Washington, D.C. The Wheaton Franciscan Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation has expressed its support as well by signing onto a petition that so far has gathered more than 2 million signatures. In addition, the JPIC has petitioned U.S.-based Fidelity Investment Corp. to divest its business relationship with PetroChina, the investment arm of China’s national petroleum operation. According to officials from Trocaire, a nonprofit crisis response agency from Ireland, PetroChina’s background can be traced to the funding of violence in Darfur.
  
A number of famous entertainers and actors, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, the stars of the popular film “Oceans 11,” have stepped out to promote national and international criticism of the ongoing bloodshed in Darfur.

Meanwhile, Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg put a torch under China by threatening to withdraw from a previous commitment to promote China’s 2008 Summer Olympics if lawmakers there persist in a policy that results in the propagation of human rights violations in Darfur.

To take action to assist the suffering in Darfur, visit: http://ga6.org/campaign/china_must_act