China and Saudi Arabia: The Human Rights' Cost of Chinese Oil

Chinese President Hu Jintao continues his efforts aimed at securing oil for his thirsty country no matter what the costs are. Through his visit to Saudi Arabia he scored multiple points for Chinese oil, Chinese abuse of Human Rights, Islamist regimes abuse of Human Rights and an altogether shitty world.

While in Saudi Arabia, Hu signed a deal for oil with the Saudi kingdom. So far no problem. The right to buy oil belongs to everyone; and now that China has the purchasing power through its artificially low exchange rate (attracting more purchases and contributing to China's surplus) it can also acquire the oil. However it is Hu's accompanying declaration that has turned things ugly.

In a speech to the Shura, the Saudi advisory council, Hu stressed that differences should not be used as a pretext to interfere in other nations internal affairs "nor should we blame civilizations, nationality or religion for the world's existing disputes". The motivation for this proclamation is clear and by no means nice. Through this declaration Hu adressed Islamist regimes main concerns about intervening in their internal affairs due to abyssmal Human Rights records; a concern he himself shares as demonstrated in his recent visit to the US.

During that visit, Hu faced a plethora of demonstration groups including Taiwanese nationals, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan supporters and persecuted Chinese nationals all pointing at China's own poor Human Rights record. And so he too, like the Islamist regimes, is frightful of an intervention. And this is where Hu's declaration becomes important: he is literally sending a sign to the Islamist regimes that as long as they have oil, their Human Rights violations would not matter because they have the great violator China behind them - of ourse just as long as they supply the oil to China. Not surprisingly, this should also serve as an indication for China's stance in the upcoming (April 28) Security Council deliberations on the Iranian nuclear threat; as China once more puts its oil needs above everything else, the way America did for so many years before the war in Iraq.

And so in conclusion anybody who supports Human Rights and cares about World Peace (and I'm not just referring to beauty queens), should find this kind of diplomacy reprihensible; and insist that China should not be allowed to prosper at the expense of world security or the liberties of people in the Middle East and China proper.

tags:
Middle East, China, Saudi Arabia, Human Rights, US, Taiwan, Tibet, Iran, Nuclear Power, Security Council, Oil.

Signals

From his office in the EU, Havier Solane, the EU's foreign policy co-ordinator, notes his biggest concern regarding Israel. In a recent report he submitted to the EU he tells Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, he noted that the tendency for a desire to break away with the Palestinians unilaterally is increasing. However contrary to what Mr. Solane thinks, this is not a new tendency but rather one that existed since October 2000 when the Al-Aqsa Intifada began.

During Camp-David 2000, Israelis had high hopes. They went as far as they could and recieved nothing in return. Though all sides were to blame, this was mainly the fault of Yasser Arafat. The outbreak of clashes brought many Israelis to accept Ariel Sharon's hard line stance (which has since gone pragmatic). As clashes intensified, Israeli desire for a separation became manifested through the security wall. It took some time till the panic receeded; and now it is rekindeled again by the election of Hamas into power. For the Israelis this is the equivilant of the Al-Aqsa intifada all over again.

And perhaps this is the biggest loss of the whole process. If Israelis in 1999 held the utopian idea of two states for two nations living in peace and co-prosperity side by side; today they hold the idea of two states for two nations and the hell with what happens on the other side of the wall. This could spell disaster for the whole process; and at the current time it is only the palestinians that can get everyone out of this mess. Just as Israelis have not voted for the hradline right (National Union) to form the government, signaling lack of desire to compromise; so do the Palestinians must signal that the categorical rejection of Israel as manifested by Hamas is not their way.

tags:
Israel, Middle East, Palestinians, EU, Hamas, Middle East Peace Process.