LONDON - Recent signs indicate that
Beijing is making subtle changes in its policy
toward Libya so that it may play safe in the
ongoing crisis in the North African country by
hedging against potential risks.
As
reported by China's state media, on June 8 in
Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met
Abdelati Obeidi, secretary of the General People's
Committee for Foreign Liaison and International
Cooperation of Libya who also acts as the Tripoli
regime's special envoy to China, to "discuss the
current situation in Libya and exchange views on
the resolution of the crisis".
On the very
next day, however, Chen Xiaodong, director of the
Chinese Foreign Ministry's Northwest Asia and
Africa Division, said in an interview with Chinese
media that China intended to
keep contact with the
Benghazi-based National Transitional Council of
Libya, the rebel group fighting the Tripoli regime
of Muammar Gaddafi.
For this purpose,
Beijing would like to invite representatives of
the rebel group to visit China, Chen said.
Moreover, he stressed that to pave the way for a
political resolution of the ongoing crisis, China
had increased its efforts to persuade all parties
in the conflict to start dialogue.
Indeed,
according to a spokesperson of China's Foreign
Ministry, even before the Tripoli delegation's
visit to Beijing, Chinese ambassador to Qatar
Zhang Zhiliang had met Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the
chairman of the transitional council.
In
addition, the minister-counselor of the Chinese
Embassy in Egypt, Li Lianhe, visited Benghazi,
"mainly to learn about the humanitarian situation
and the fate of Chinese state-companies there". At
the same time, he made contact with leaders of the
transitional council.
Such words and deeds
by senior Chinese officials show signs of Beijing
making subtle changes in its policy toward Libya
in at least two dimensions since the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization-led air strikes
against the Gaddafi regime began in February.
First, Beijing now wants to become more
proactively involved in the Libya crisis, giving
up its hitherto stance of remaining a bystander.
Second, it wants to deal simultaneously with the
two sides - the Tripoli regime and the opposition
- practically giving up its long-standing
principle of non-intervention in another country's
internal affairs.
These changes can be
more clearly seen and understood by looking back
at the evolution of China's stance on the Libya
crisis. In March, China, a permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),
abstained from instead of vetoing UN Resolution
1973, which allowed for a no-fly zone in Libya.
This was mainly not to offend the League of Arab
States and the African Union, which wanted the
resolution to be adopted.
However, China
soon realized it had lost some prestige in
developing countries, especially in the Arab
world, because its abstention encouraged the West
to interfere in Libya - a sovereign state - by
backing the rebels. So China had to strongly
oppose the NATO-led bombing in Libya shortly after
it started.
As the conflict between
Tripoli and the NATO-supported Benghazi became a
seemingly endless tug-of-war, China turned to
remaining silent, apart from occasional rhetoric
and diplomatic words.
This has changed,
with Beijing wanting to play the role of
peacemaker, and to do this it has to be in contact
with both sides - while at the same time not
taking sides.
The primary reason for this
is that China wants to maximize its national
interests, that is, to be positioned to deal with
whoever eventually emerges as the victor as it has
considerable investments in Libya. This is mainly
in the energy and construction sectors.
Some Chinese project contractors,
including China Gezhouba Corp as well as China
Railway Construction and Metallurgical Co, have
projects in Libya. Most Chinese companies have
either withdrawn or stopped operations and many
people have been evacuated.
A spokesperson
for ZTE Corp, the second-largest telecommunication
equipment maker in China, said 88 staff members
had been evacuated. ZTE Corp is the largest
telecommunication equipment provider in Libya, and
has made investments worth 3 billion yuan (US$457
million) since 1999.
Beijing's adoption of
a hedging policy violates its non-intervention
principle, but there is no reason to jump to the
conclusion that this signals China is to totally
abandon the principle - this is not the first time
it has happened.
Before the Darfur crisis
was resolved in Sudan, China actively contacted
the rebel groups of South Sudan, and even signed
economic contracts with them and established an
agency in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, while
it still recognized the Khartoum regime as the
legitimate authority of Sudan at that time.
China can certainly help with
crisis-resolution in Libya since it will have
links with both parties and will also cooperate
with Western powers as a permanent member of the
UNSC.
Yet China still has to learn to
manage a complicated international situation,
while at the same time adhering to its diplomatic
principles or philosophy. In this sense, China is
still a newcomer and will have much more to learn
before it grows into a sophisticated and
responsible player in the international arena.
Dr Jian Junbo, an assistant
professor of the Institute of International
Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, China, is
currently an academic visitor at London School of
Economics and Political Science, United
Kingdom.
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