thE intERnational PREsEnCE in sudan 287appreciated 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 popularThe 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).