China's Interfering Foreign Policy

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Over the weekend, China's Communist Party convened its Third Plenum Meeting to delineate reforms to guide its policy-making for the next decade. But this is not what we are going to discuss in this post, since we would like to take you in a different direction.

"When he is going to weaken another, he will first strengthen him;" (in Tao Te Ching)

It is public knowledge that China's foreign policy is usually summarised in a few words: minimum interference, maximum gain. But this is sheer sophistry.
On paper, China stays true to the "Non-interference in internal affairs" motto; meaning that the Red Dragon will turn a blind eye to repressive and corrosively corrupt regimes, if that means that it will have something to benefit from it. Many argue that the People's Republic's method is a diplomatic model to follow because it would spare the world a lot of trouble (these arguers say that because the US meddles in everything, and tries to give democratic lessons to everybody, it sees itself under constant threat) - but is that assumption true?
The more we look at the Chinese affairs, around the world, the more we are convinced that China betrays its own political spirit and interferes quite a lot in other countries (often in a very negative fashion). Look at Africa, for instance:

- Central African Republic: the Red Dragon signed oil and mineral contracts with the government of François Bozizé. When the latter was deposed (in a coup, earlier this year), and chaos broke out in CAR, it was business as usual for China: it continued to conduct its affairs, which is all very well but when the Séléka approached their mines and oil fields, what did the Chinese give the Islamic militant group exactly to be left alone? Did China give them weapons?

- Zimbabwe: the West has imposed sanctions (e.g. travel restrictions, assets freeze) against this African nation; but the Red Dragon stomped on the western penalty and offered Robert Mugabe (through its diamond business in Rhodesia) an opportunity to revitalise the economy of his country, to mock the West, to mock the democratic process, to repress his people even more, and to get richer...all Criticism-Free (could an analogy be made to Iran's case?).
Despite the ban of weapons sales, imposed by the US and Europe, China has been selling weaponry to Robert Mugabe, knowing that those arms will be used to repress Zimbabweans. Before such criticism, the Red Dragon said a few years ago that selling weapons to the ZANU-PF's regime is only "prudent and responsible".

"When he is going to overthrow another, he will first have raised him up;" (idem)

- Sudan: China invested heavily in the Sudanese oil industry (according to an Al-Jazeera documentary, the Chinese built the Heglig pipeline connected to Port Sudan with Chinese labour [the Red Dragon made sure only its imported countrymen would secure a job in the Sudanese project by placing instructions, in the facilities,  solely in Mandarin]. Omar al-Bashir didn't seem to mind the arrangement as long as China would keep giving him weapons, build roads and stadiums - to boast his image as a good ruler; while his Janjaweed persecuted, murdered and raped Christian Sudanese as part of the Arab plan to see Sudan "Zorka Free" (i.e. free of Black Africans). Chinese rifles and incendiary ammunition have been discovered in the Darfur region, an area subject to a UN weapons embargo - in the name of China's development, breaching the embargo it is a necessary harm.

- DR Congo: the Red Dragon invested in the "mining and untold billions of dollars worth of copper and cobalt with Congo’s state mining agency" [in Think Africa Press] in exchange for building roads, schools and hospitals. For some Congolese, China was much more welcoming than the US because the Chinese do not try to give them lessons on democracy and human rights: they simply pay the officials what needs to be paid, drain all the resources they need and that is it.
The Red Dragon conducted its business in DR Congo during the civil conflict (that ended last week) - where grave violations of human rights occurred - and even supplied weapons that fell into rebel hands (to ensure their mining activities would not be affected by the conflict).

"When he is going to despoil another, he will first have made gifts to him;" (idem) 

China has also fuelled conflicts in other countries like Somalia (where Chinese rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs] and General Purpose Machine Guns [GPMGs] have been seen and reports say that China is Al-Shabab's bigger arms supplier).

All the above examples reveal a clear pattern: China doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign countries (i.e. turns a blind eye to repression and crimes against humanity) but at the same time it does (i.e. fueling repression and crimes against humanity in many countries).

The hungry Red Dragon sticks its tongue in the beehive to eat honey; then to prevent others from supervising how he retrieves the sweet stuff, he finds ways for the swarm of bees to destroy their own house before he can be held accountable for his greed.

"Instruments for the profit of a state should not be shown to the people" (idem)