Most of what I hear about China in Sudan from the Western media makes China look bad, because they are supporting Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the ICC (International Criminal Court).
After reading an extensive post about this at China Matters, my opinion changed.
I learned that in 2000, President Clinton was opposed to any kind of rapprochement with Sudan and spared no effort to further isolate the African-Arab country at both regional and international levels.
Then G.W. Bush became president and reversed U.S. policy toward Sudan, an oil-rich country.
China Matters reproduced a 2006 post called “The Twisted Triangle” that had a wealth of detail about the Bush administration’s “forgotten” courtship of Omar al-Bashir.
In short, America was competing with China for access to Sudanese oil and the Chinese won the chess game.
Curious, I turned to Western media sources to see what they were currently saying about China in Sudan.
In an August 2010 Reuters piece, China was portrayed as uncooperative.
Then the Telegraph in the UK says that China’s stake in Sudanese oil has made China Mr. al-Bashir’s only friend among the leading powers, while human rights groups have called for an oil embargo on Khartoum.
Without mentioning what President G .W. Bush’s administration did in Sudan, the Telegraph concludes by saying that America formally banned its companies from investing there and European firms avoid the protests that would accompany any involvement with al-Bashir’s militant Muslim regime.
Did America put that ban in place before or after the Bush administration lost the chess game over Sudanese oil to China?
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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