Western media exaggerate China’s limited arms sale to Sudan: Envoy

LONDON—A senior Chinese diplomat has said that western media have exaggerated China’s limited arms sale to Sudan.
Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government on the Darfur issue, told a news conference at the Chinese embassy in London on Thursday that “China has adopted a high degree of restraint in its arms sale to developing countries, including Sudan. It is very limited in numbers.”
According to relevant international statistics, among a total of seven countries exporting arms to Sudan, China only accounted for 8 percent of the country’s arms imports in 2006, he said.
“I am puzzled why China’s arms sale is exaggerated by the media, and I am wondering whether it is out of misunderstanding or on purpose,” the envoy said.
China has participated in the UN Military Transparency Mechanism and it has been providing the requested data for the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. All its arms sold to developing countries are registered in the world body, he added.
Liu further noted that weapons flooding the world market had come from other countries such as the United States.
According to figures released by the U.S. Congressional Research Service in September 2007, the United States remained the world’s largest seller of conventional arms to developing countries in 2006, with 36 percent.
It was followed by Russia with 28 percent, Britain 11 percent, Germany 6 percent and China, only 3 percent, said Liu.
Liu said that China has done a great deal in order to solve the Darfur issue and would do more for the Sudanese. He hoped that other countries would do “tangible and practical work” to help relieve the sufferings in the Darfur region.
A visiting senior Chinese diplomat said here Thursday that it was “totally unreasonable” to link Sudan’s Darfur issue with the Beijing Olympics in August.
It was also “dangerous” to politicize the Olympics in the long run, said Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government to Darfur issue, said at a news conference held at the Chinese Embassy in London.
Liu told reporters that he was very surprised by Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg’s resignation as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Beijing Olympic organizing committee had sent Spielberg a recruitment letter, he had not signed it by the deadline of May 10 last year, said Liu, adding “theoretically he was not art director to the Beijing Olympic games.”
“It was a great surprise for me that he should have resigned. There is no such question of resignation.” Liu said.
Liu said that he met Spielberg in New York last year and they had an in-depth discussion on Darfur issue including China’s stance on the issue.
“I told him at that time: Mr Spielberg, I know that you are no longer an art adviser to the Beijing Olympics but still I would like to discuss the question with you.” said Liu, 61, a veteran diplomat, also a former ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa, and has been engaged in African affairs for more than 25 years.
Spielberg announced on Feb. 13 his decision to quit the upcoming Olympics as an artistic advisor, citing concerns over the violence in Darfur, which he linked to the Chinese government.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge shrugged off the controversy caused by Spielberg’s decision to withdraw as an artistic consultant to the Beijing Olympics, stressing that IOC is “a sporting, not a political association.”
Asked to comment on Spielberg’s decision, U.S. President GeorgeW. Bush said that he would attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics as scheduled, adding that he had no reason to use the Olympics as a way to highlight political issues.

—The Daily Mail, China Daily news exchange item