As the 2008 Olympics approached, China underwent a crash course in the politics of overseas investments when human rights groups accused Beijing of holding a “Genocide Games” on the grounds that its oil investments in Sudan were sustaining a scorched earth campaign in Darfur. For the Chinese leadership, however, its Sudanese headache is only just beginning.
In Beijing just as in Khartoum and elsewhere in east Africa, the outcome is being anxiously awaited from a referendum held this month in southern Sudan on whether to separate from the rest of the country. If the poll confirms enough support for separation, the south could become the world’s newest country as early as July.
Even after relatively conciliatory words from Khartoum, distrust of the regime runs deep in the south. Some fear the separation could even reignite a civil war that once claimed 2m lives. For China, the potential break-up is one of the biggest diplomatic tests yet for Beijing’s ambitious push into overseas natural resources. About 80 per cent of Sudanese oil is in the south, but the port used to ship it abroad is in the north, fed by a pipeline. As the biggest foreign investor in Sudan, China finds itself caught in the middle of the country’s visceral internal divide.