China's Rebuke of New HRF Report is Erroneous

China is clearly on the defensive when it comes to its arms sales to the government of Sudan. A new report issued Thursday by Human Rights First found that when the violence was peaking in Darfur, China was the near exclusive provider of small arms to the government of Sudan. These weapons were flowing from the Sudanese government into the hands of government-backed militias that carry out countless atrocities in Darfur.

Yesterday Qin Gang, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, rebuked Human Rights First’s report. In a press conference Qin denied that China is the largest supplier of arms to Sudan. He is right. But Qin's assertion was apparently meant to avoid confronting Human Rights First’s revelation of China being by far the largest small arms supplier to Sudan during the height of the violence in Darfur. There is little reason to doubt that China continues to supply the government of Sudan with large amounts of small arms, but it is impossible to know since the last figures on small arms trading between the two countries was reported to the United Nations in 2006.

During the press conference, Qin also said that China’s arms sales-polices are “always very prudent”. Such claims are debunked by China’s actions: there is nothing prudent about supplying arms to the Sudanese government, especially when China knows that the government of Sudan uses its weapons to commit mass atrocities in Darfur.

In the lead up to the Olympic Games in Beijing, the government of China is determined to make it seem as though it is a harmonious and peaceful rising world power. China has a chance to start matching this rhetoric with reality by immediately halting its arms sales to Sudan and doing all it can to promote a sustainable peace in Darfur and throughout the whole of Sudan. Such actions would represent concrete steps towards China achieving the status of being the peaceful nation that it claims to be.