Date: Wed Dec 3 18:34:18 2014
Here's Why China's Sending Hundreds Of Peacekeepers To Africa
*
<http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2014/12/02/guest-post-chinese-troops-in-africa-p
rotecting-civilians-and-oil/> Sean J. Li, <http://www.cfr.org/> Council on
Foreign Relations
* Dec. 3, 2014, 10:51 AM
China announced in September that it would send a battalion of seven-hundred
infantry soldiers to reinforce the United Nations Mission in South Sudan
(UNMISS), a heretofore unprecedented move that
<http://thediplomat.com/2014/09/china-triples-peacekeeping-presence-in-south
-sudan/> triples its troop contribution.
It is suspected by commentators, such as
<http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/15/un_peacekeepers_to_prote
ct_chinas_oil_interests_in_south_sudan> Column Lynch at Foreign Policy, that
this commitment was made to
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-deploys-troops-in-south-sudan-to-defen
d-oil-fields-workers-1410275041> shield the oil industry - which both UNMISS
and the Chinese Foreign Ministry have
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/uk-china-sudan-idUKKBN0H502U201409
10> denied.
The <http://www.cfr.org/china/expanding-china-africa-oil-ties/p9557>
increased international profile of Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) and
other commercial interests, especially in Africa, has raised
<http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/PartnerCountry
SeriesUpdateonOverseasInvestmentsbyChinasNationalOilCompanies.pdf> questions
about whether China's long-standing principle of non-interference will hold
in the future.
Oil imports have steadily grown to meet increasing domestic energy demands -
the US Energy Information Association
<http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=15531> reported that China
surpassed the United States as the world's largest net oil importer for the
first time last year.
As a result, Chinese NOCs have become international players in over forty
countries since venturing abroad two decades ago. Some
<http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2010/07/china-oil-downs> observers
have
<http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/china-in-africa-implications-for-us-
policy> criticized these NOCs as mere agents of the central government
seeking to aggressively expand power and influence.
However, the International Energy Agency
<http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/overseas_china
.pdf> found that NOCs actually possess a substantial degree of independence
and discretion in their investment policies and operations, and concluded
that they mainly base their decisions about equity oil marketing on
commercial matters, rather than political meddling.
Chinese NOCs have accepted risk by pursuing oil in political unstable
countries, such as Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, and Venezuela, because
established markets are dominated by Western oil majors. For example, China
invested heavily in Libya, but events outside Beijing's control during the
2012 revolution resulted in massive damage to Chinese assets - totaling
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25654155> $20 billion.
China was forced to hastily reassign the warship Xuzhou from an
international anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, to evacuate
<http://english.cntv.cn/20110303/103938.shtml> 35,860 Chinese workers who
were stranded in Libya - resulting in a successful but uncoordinated
mission. Similarly, Chinese energy firms and workers have long faced high
degrees of <http://www.economist.com/node/21542930> risk while operating in
other developing countries like
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/world/africa/25iht-ethiopia.5.5441363.htm
l?_r=1&> Ethiopia,
<http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704388504575418990791137242>
Angola, and
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/world/africa/25iht-ethiopia.5.5441363.htm
l?_r=1&> Cameroon where Boko Haram was suspected of kidnapping ten Chinese
nationals.
China Foreign Minister Wang Yi Ethiopia South Sudan CeasefireTiksa
Negeri/ReutersChina's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) addresses a news
conference with his Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom during his official
visit to Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, on Jan. 6, 2014. China, the biggest
investor in South Sudan's oil industry, called for an immediate ceasefire in
the country.
Of the one million Chinese citizens working abroad - up from 114,000 in 2007
- workers in Sudan and South Sudan in particular have been targeted for
kidnappings in recent years.
As more Chinese go abroad to visit and work, overseas citizen protection
will continue to pose a
<http://www.sipri.org/media/newsletter/essay/february12> challenge for the
Chinese government.
In South Sudan, China's
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/05/us-southsudan-china-insight-idUSK
BN0EG00320140605> interests are primarily in the oil industry. Chinese,
Malaysian, and Indian oil companies dominate South Sudan's oil sector, and
China National Petroleum Company alone controls a
<http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=su> 40 percent stake in the
consortium.
Although South Sudan accounted for 5 percent of China's total crude imports
before fighting escalated in December 2013, output has since plummeted by
one-third and is now at around 160,000 barrels/day.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-25578346> Stemming from poor
governance and corruption, tensions with Khartoum, and political
competition, colored by sectarian strife and disputes over oil rents, much
violence has been centralized in oil-producing areas. China has
diplomatically cooperated with the Western countries - Norway, the United
Kingdom, and the United States - to restore stability as an "
<http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21592637-despite-despe
rate-peacemaking-efforts-outlook-south-sudan> honest broker" since the
conflict's outbreak.
However, the country is facing the possibility of
<http://www.crisisgroup.org/%7E/media/Files/africa/horn-of-africa/south%20su
dan/217-south-sudan-a-civil-war-by-any-other-name.pdf> civil war, which
would add to the ten thousand people who have died, one million who are
displaced, and many more who face protracted humanitarian crisis and even
<http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21635054-all-sides-are
-preparing-again-long-civil-war-christmas-fighting-season> famine as the
fighting season begins again this winter.
The United States, which was critical in helping South Sudan achieve
independence, has seemingly been
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25738492> less effective in
bargaining with the belligerent sides than China, which has worked
diligently with the international, regional, and local actors to reach a
political solution.
<http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/15/un_peacekeepers_to_prote
ct_chinas_oil_interests_in_south_sudan> Skepticism has been levied on China
for apparently wanting to protect its oil investments in the country, yet
oil production is the major driver of Sudan's economy, providing
<http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southsudan/overview> 98 percent of
fiscal revenue in 2011. The West and China have recently achieved "
<http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21601244-civil-wars-wo
rst-massacre-ensures-war-will-get-still-bloodier-new> rare" political
consensus to work closely together to resolve the conflict in South Sudan
through multilateral means, and China's increased involvement in South Sudan
should thus be understood in the broader context of its emergence as a
global actor willing to protect its interests - signifying a gradual shift
and foreshadowing things to come.
Whether China's peacekeeping deployment in South Sudan is motivated by NOCs
or central government guidance may not matter - seven-hundred troops have
already been committed. Yan Xuetong, dean of Tsinghua University's Institute
of Modern International Relations, speculated after Libya that China should
shoulder more international responsibility,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/opinion/01iht-edyan01.html?_r=1&>
writing, "the Chinese government learned that international responsibility
is mainly defined by political responses to international crises, especially
security issues."
China is becoming a great power and as its interests and companies expand
overseas, will continue to exert its foreign policy in issues that it once
considered off-limits.
Last week President Xi Jinping stated in a major foreign affairs
<http://www.china.org.cn/china/2014-11/30/content_34188844_2.htm> speech to
Communist Party officials that: "Our biggest opportunity lies in China's
steady development and the growth in its strength. [W]e should be mindful of
various risks and challenges and skillfully defuse potential crises and turn
them into opportunities for China's development. .We should conduct
diplomacy with a salient Chinese feature and a Chinese vision." China's
deployment in South Sudan is another milestone in its path toward greater
global engagement that can hopefully offer stability to the global order.
South Sudan IDP displaced persons refugees UN campAndreea
Campeanu/ReutersGirls play in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp
inside the UN base in Malakal, on July 24, 2014. According to UNMISS, the
base is hosting about 17,000 people who were displaced by the armed conflict
in the region.
China Soldiers Peacekeeper UN Beijing DRCGuang Niu/ReutersChinese soldiers
wearing the UN peacekeeper blue berets attend a ceremony in Beijing on Feb.
10, 2003, before deploying to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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