President Hu Jintao's third trip to Africa in four years shows the importance Beijing attaches to the world's poorest, but one of its most resource-rich, continents. Past visits have concentrated on trade, aid and investment, but with Sudan among the nations on the itinerary starting today, politics must also now be broached.
As a world power with ever-growing influence, China can no longer ignore its international responsibilities. Those are being amply fulfilled when it comes to improving the lives of Africans economically; they are not, however, when it comes to protecting their rights.
In Sudan, where government-approved genocide continues to take place in the Darfur region despite a UN Security Council resolution and the presence of peacekeepers from the African Union, the rights of millions of Africans are being violated. China, through lucrative oil and trade deals to be boosted by pacts during Mr Hu's two-day visit beginning on Friday, has considerable leverage to stop the killings, rape and displacement of people.
To do otherwise by putting accords on oil exploration and trade ahead of those obligations damages the nation's claim to be a worthy partner for global peace, security and stability.
State leaders have long argued that respecting a nation's sovereignty is foremost in any relationship it is involved in. Criticising a government for violating the basic rights of its people is considered an infringement of that sovereignty, even if international law is being ignored. So, too, is an insistence that any accords are reliant on governments cleaning up corruption and shedding dubious ethics.
The rationale behind this 'no strings attached' policy is not hard to fathom. China does not want to be told what to do; it will cease to be credible if it turns around and tells other countries what to do. When it was first conceived in the 1950s, the policy won China applause from developing countries that felt victimised by their former colonial powers, which attached all kinds of conditions on trading links with them. Over time, however, the policy is seen more as a defensive move by China to ward off foreign criticisms of its own shortcomings.
