Last November, at a conference held at the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa featuring representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, African Union, Sudan and other African countries, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan outlined a three-phase plan (the Annan Plan) to offer assistance to African Union troops stationing in Darfur. In the first phase, the UN would send in military equipment valued at $21 million, and dispatch nearly 200 officers, police officers and officials as intelligence officials and councilors; in the second phase, the personnel and equipment sent to the African Union troops should reach a certain amount and scale; in the third phase, a UN-AU united troop should be established in Darfur with 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police people, and the commanding power of the troop with the UN.

China supports the Annan Plan, and believes it is practical and acceptable to Sudan. China hopes that agreements can be signed between Sudan and other sides through discussion and negotiation.

To delve further into the situation, the Chinese Government has dispatched five envoy groups to Darfur. In 2007, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun paid two visits to Sudan; during his second visit, he acted as China's envoy and made a thorough survey of the situation in Darfur. On May 10, the Chinese Government appointed Ambassador Liu Guijin as the special representative of African affairs. Liu is a veteran diplomat to Africa, having served as the Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Director General of the Department of African Affairs and the Chinese Ambassador to South Africa. This is the third time that the Chinese Government has appointed a special representative, an indication of its concern for the Darfur issue. After assuming office, Ambassador Liu immediately made a five-day trip to Sudan, and discussed the plight of Darfur with high-ranking Sudanese leaders, so as to accelerate the political settlement of the issue and afford local people a better life and security.

Subsequently, due to China's constructive efforts, the Sudanese Government announced a total acceptance of the second phase of the Annan Plan, an important step towards politically resolving the Darfur issue. Moreover, to promote the implementation of the second phase, China has decided to dispatch 275 Chinese military engineers to the region as part of the Annan Plan.

The future of Darfur

With the implementation of the second phase of the Annan Plan, more African and UN troops will mobilize in the area, with better equipment and rations; this will go a long way in stabilizing local security and guaranteeing a humanitarian rescue. It is foreseeable that the third phase of the plan can also be carried out smoothly, if the warring sides agree to erase their suspicion of each other and settle the problem based on practicality and a conciliatory attitude. But the nature of the conflict, rooted in religion and politics, could make a quick resolution difficult, and the world should prepare itself accordingly.

China's Stance On April 11, 2007, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun made a three-point proposal regarding the solution of the Darfur issue: The Sudanese Government is willing to conduct a dialogue and cooperate with the international community on the Darfur issue. The international community should pay special attention to the methods of conducting dialogue with the Sudanese Government in the future to make its work more effective. The Darfur issue in essence is an issue of development, and the peacekeeping operations and political process should be pushed ahead in a balanced manner. The backward Darfur region has little natural resources and suffers from extreme poverty. The basic way of resolving the Darfur issue is economic reconstruction and development. Without economic growth, it will be impossible to improve the living conditions, people will continue to fight for basic living materials and the root cause for local conflict will not be eradicated. Here we appeal to the international community to provide development assistance to the people in Darfur, in addition to humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, peacekeeping is closely linked with the political process. Advocating peacekeeping on one hand and supporting the armed confrontation of rivals with the government on the other hand will undermine the reunification and territorial integrity of Sudan, and go against the consensus of the international community. China is willing to continue to play a constructive role on the issue of Darfur. It is the basic objective of the Chinese Government to realize peace, stability and economic reconstruction in Darfur through negotiations. China is fully aware of the situation in Darfur and has offered a large number of humanitarian assistance and donations to the region and the African Union Mission in Darfur. China expects to continue to make contributions to the peace, stability and development of the Darfur region.