China’s ‘shell game’ in Sudan

Although officials at China’s second-largest state-owned oil company
have publicly announced it is giving up its stake in a controversial oil
project in Sudan, human rights organizations say the move is just a
cynical “shell game” designed to avoid widespread condemnation and to
facilitate access to the U.S. stock market.

Officials at Sinopec recently admitted that a subsidiary of the
state-owned oil giant, Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Administration,
had sold its 80 percent share in a small exploration block named Sudan 6
to China National Petroleum for an undisclosed amount. The announcement
came ahead of a $3.5 billion global stock offer by the Chinese
government-owned oil company scheduled for late October.

“Neither Sinopec or its listed vehicle has investment in Sudan now,”
the Sinopec spokesman stated in a Reuters report Wednesday. “We
transferred the oil exploration and development project in Sudan to CNPC
in June.”

Chinese government investment in a pipeline and oil refinery in Sudan
raised protests from human rights groups before a multi-billion dollar
stock offering in April by the state owned PetroChina oil Corporation.
The protests forced PetroChina to remove the Sudanese assets from the
stock listing.

Human rights groups say Sudan’s Islamic government is using the
Chinese oil revenues to fund its war against Muslim, Christian and
animist rebels. The move by Sinopec to shed its Sudanese assets brought
swift reaction from human rights advocates in the United States.

“This offering is a new box in the Chinese shell game of ‘where’s
Sudan?'” stated Dr. Charles Jacobs from the Boston-based American
Anti-Slavery Group, responding to the move by the Chinese state owned
oil firm.

“We know China is a partner in Khartoum’s oil development, they just
need to make it hard to find under which cup — Sinopec, PetroChina or
China National Petroleum — Sudan is hidden. No one should be fooled:
Investing in any one of these state-owned, fungible entities, is an
investment in Khartoum’s campaign to enslave and slaughter blacks in
Sudan.”

Last month,

WorldNetDaily reported that Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Amoco were close to investing several hundred million dollars into Sinopec.

According to an Aug. 31 Reuters report, Sinopec sources stated that the state-owned firm planned to raise more than the $3.1 billion PetroChina raised in April 2000 in its stock offering. The Western investment is part of a planned initial public offering to raise over $3 billion for Beijing.

“The projected Sinopec IPO shows just how much muscle American Sudan advocates have developed,” stated Eric Reeves, a human rights advocate working at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. “It is an extraordinary accomplishment to be able to determine the terms on which the Chinese attempt to enter the American capital markets.”

According to Reeves, the move by Sinopec will make little difference in the planned protests against the Chinese oil giant.

“But make no mistake about it. Despite Sinopec’s claims to have transferred their Sudan assets elsewhere, they remain defined by that Sudan presence, and will be treated accordingly by Sudan advocates,” stated Reeves.

“This so-called ‘cut in links to Sudan’ reveals nothing more than the fungibility of tangible assets in the Chinese economic system. In other words, one state-owned entity simply has moved out a controversial asset to another state-owned ‘corporate venue’ for the purposes of gaining a listing on the New York Stock Exchange and access to the investment dollars of American citizens.”

“There is a true bottom line,” noted Reeves. “The People’s Republic of China is investing heavily in Sudan’s genocidally destructive oil project. And no one should invest in any form of that Chinese participation, including Sinopec.”

There is evidence that Sinopec remains in Sudan despite the assurances given by communist officials that the oil giant had sold out. According to a report in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, “Chinese Oil Firm Cuts Sudan Links,” Sinopec has done little to hide its Sudanese Zhongyuan operations.

“Zhongyuan still maintains a Sudan office at its headquarters in China’s central Henan province, despite the transfer of some of its assets to CNPC,” the report stated.

“At the Henan office, a Zhongyuan executive says the Zhongyuan continues to provide services for (the oil site at) Sudan 6. An official at the commercial section of the Chinese embassy in Sudan, as well as a Zhongyuan executive on site in Sudan, both said this week that Sinopec’s work has continued on the oil field. The Zhongyuan official declined to provide further details, saying the operation ‘isn’t public information.'”

The move by the Chinese oil giant appears to have failed to convince human rights advocates that it is out of Sudan. According to one prominent activist, the Sinopec move is nothing more than financial camouflage used by the Chinese government, which is trying to hide the true nature of its Sudanese oil project.

“We will fight the Chinese accomplices,” vowed Jacobs.

“Investors should take note of how our human rights movement defeated Sudan at the U.N. this week. Khartoum was unexpectedly trounced. Slavery, even hidden under a Chinese cup, is a bad investment.”

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Protest against Sudan slavery, genocide

Freedom purchased for slaves in Sudan