Members chide China

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and 107 other House members have warned China’s president that his government risks being seen as having “bankrolled a genocide” if it does not do more to end the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

In a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered to the Chinese Embassy this morning, the members said is would be a “disaster” for China if the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were marred by protestors linking atrocities in Darfur to China’s government.

The letter suggested protests would occur if the situation in Darfur fails to improve, and called on Hu to protect his country’s image from being irredeemably tarnished through association with a genocidal regime.
China has come under criticism for being Sudan’s largest foreign investor and trading partner, and critics have been linking China’s support for Sudan’s government to the 2008 Olympics, which the House letter said was increasingly being described as the “genocide Olympics.”

{mosads}Chinese Embassy officials have tried to respond by outlining China’s position on Darfur in meetings and correspondences with members of Congress.

For example, in an April 10 letter to Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who signed the Hoyer letter, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Zhou Wenzhong expressed worry about a link between the Olympics and Darfur. Such rhetoric could risk “misleading the public or, worse, diverting the public attention away from the real issue at stake,” Zhou wrote.

“It will also be unhelpful to the international cooperation on the Darfur issue, including that between China and the United States,” the Zhou letter added. 

The Hoyer letter was initiated by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and was signed by several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has met with Chinese officials on Darfur. A number of Republicans also signed the letter, including presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.).