Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2016 | Page 102

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
of imposition on countries undergoing post-conflict reconstruction, especially an
externally imposed and predetermined model of political and economic governance.
According to Chinese scholars what is most important is not just the promotion of
democratic governance, but the reduction of poverty and ending unemployment. The
rationale is that poverty is associated with instability therefore the long-term objective
of peace-building must be to ensure human security by focusing on alleviating both
poverty and unemployment.
Summary and Conclusions
China’s engagement with Africa is multipronged and predicated on a geostrategy
of geopolitical objectives with the primary focus on strengthening
political ties with all states in Africa, and geo-economic objectives with the
principal focus on access to Africa’s resources. Both objectives are partly achieved by
the seemingly contradictory policies of arms sales which generate profits for China,
produce dependence by African states, and thereby enhance stronger political ties, and
peacekeeping/peacebuilding activities by China which equally strengthen political ties
with African states, but also give China a good image in the world. It is rather obvious
that one of the anomalies of China’s foreign policy toward Africa is the contradiction
between its arms transfers to Africa on the one hand, and its peacekeeping activities
on the other. There is a direct clash between monetary support for the AU, deployment
of troops to achieve peace in areas of civil strife and interfering in Africa’s conflicts
through arms transfers. Chinese small arms are used in many of Africa’s wars. During
the Darfur “genocide” weapons used to commit atrocities against the people of Darfur
were supplied by China. The irony is that the United Nations Mission in Sudan
(UNMIS) included as many as 446 of the 900 soldiers, 9 of the roughly 660 police,
and 14 of the 599 military observers. Similarly, during the war between Ethiopia and
Eritrea China was known to have supplied both sides with weapons. However, the
United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) established in July 2000,
included a Chinese contribution of 7 out of the 202 military observers. Moreover,
China is accused of supplying weapons to the Democratic Republic of Congo, while at
same time contributing troops to the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) in its support of
disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement, and reintegration (DDRRR).
China contributed 218 of the 16,594 soldiers and 12 of the 713 military observers in
that conflict.
While China is not the only country to support both conflict resolution and
weapons transfers in war-torn societies, its small arms have nonetheless contributed
to protracted wars and bloodletting. In fact, China has been implicated in the Ivorian,
Liberian, and Sierra Leonean conflicts because of the role played by Chinese firms
smuggling small arms to rebels and mercenaries thereby prolonging and even
exacerbating those conflicts. Arms transfers to developing countries never contribute
to peace. Therefore one can conclude that China’s non-interference policy is calculated
to: (1) distance itself from the colonial legacy of the Western countries in Africa; (2)
camouflage the aggressive pursuit of African resources and deflect attention from such
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