The Sudan Handbook

thE intERnational PREsEnCE in sudan 287

appreciated Beijing’s policy of non-interference in Sudan’s internal

affairs. However, just as the principle of neutrality upheld by interna-

tional humanitarian agencies was easier to express in words than put

into effect, so too China’s claims not to be involved in Sudan’s internal

affairs was hard to accept in reality, especially for southern Sudanese

during the war.

Acting as the regime’s main international patron, Beijing provided

multi-stranded economic, military, and political support to Khartoum.

China sponsored and helped implement a range of energy and trans-

port infrastructure projects in northern Sudan, and the oil boom, which

Chinese companies helped to produce, was conducive to Chinese

business expansion. If international aid and development organizations

emphasized the importance of process, or doing no harm, and did not

always deliver lasting outcomes, then the Chinese approach emphasized

practical results and was not overly concerned with the human impact of

how they were achieved. In some cases, projects that China has helped to

fund and construct were schemes first mooted in the Condominium, such

as the Meroe dam, at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile River. Khartoum

is now reviving the rhetoric of Sudan as an agricultural breadbasket and

looking to work with China, India and South Korea, as well as a number

of other investors from the Middle East, to ensure agriculture can replace

oil as Sudan’s economic future.

By the time the CPA was signed in January 2005, the international

presence in Sudan operated according to a de facto division of labour.

With Sudan subject to economic sanctions, commerce was the preserve

of a range of Asian and Middle Eastern businesses (with only a minority

of exceptions, notably in the oil sector where Total had kept but not

developed its old concession). A pre-dominantly Western international

presence largely assumed responsibility for aid and development inter-

ventions. Western states also paid most of the bill and made important

contributions to the multinational UN peacekeeping mission established

by the CPA.

During the CPA negotiations, preparing for peace was a popular

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors phrase and a large exercise known as the Joint Assessment Mission

(www.riftvalley.net).