China must not turn blind eye to friends' injustices
President Hu Jintao has embarked on his second African tour in three years with the clear message that China and Africa are natural partners. The atmosphere will be wholly unlike that which he encountered in the US last week - there will be no pressure over trade imbalances and currency valuations or human rights, no talk of not enough being done about Iran and North Korea, no pointed observations about Taiwan and no veiled warnings about the mainland's military build-up.
Instead, Mr Hu will be treated as a friend in Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya, as he was in Saudi Arabia at the weekend. Mutually beneficial deals on trade, oil and energy will be signed and the visits will end with all parties satisfied.
This is the way diplomacy should be conducted: on equal terms, without suspicion. China is winning many friends with the approach, which is based on economics and avoids the conditions the US and other western nations so often insist on when signing trade and aid agreements. The accusation is that the west's deals are unbalanced, that it is prepared to do deals with some countries but not others, depending on its strategic interests.
But while African, Middle Eastern and Asian governments welcome China's no-strings-attached deals, an opportunity is being missed by the mainland to encourage corrupt and abusive regimes to reform. Fears are rife that China will use its power of veto in the UN Security Council to strike down sanctions against Iran for pushing ahead with unauthorised uranium enrichment and against Sudan for failing to stop the genocide in Darfur. The mainland imports 11 per cent of its oil from Iran and 5.2 per cent from Sudan.
In Saudi Arabia, there was no talk between Mr Hu and his hosts about the kingdom's links to terrorism or the trampling of the rights of women. Instead, there were cordial meetings at which energy and defence deals were signed. Co-operation agreements to enhance trade will be inked in Morocco; Chinese and Nigerian officials will celebrate a just-sealed US$2 billion pact in which the mainland's off-shore oil corporation has taken a 45 per cent stake in one of the African nation's oil fields; and a friendship will be strengthened in Kenya, where China is a major player in electricity generation and is about to start exploring for oil.
Moroccans cannot freely choose their own leaders and corruption is rife in Nigeria and Kenya. China's relationship with these nations is strong and it should be using that to gently encourage changes.
China may not want to call for values or systems it does not itself have. But that is no reason to undercut the development of democracy or human rights, nor efforts to tackle corruption, in the nations with which it deals. The mainland need not use the brow-beating approach of the US; but nor should it ignore the injustices preventing the world being a better place.
