On one shoulder, Lieutenant Liu Jinzhao has a sky-blue UN patch signifying membership in a Chinese peacekeeping unit destined for Darfur. On the other shoulder, there is a rather large chip.
"Those who say China is making the situation in Darfur worse are one-sided in their view, and we will prove them wrong," said Liu, a blue UN beret hanging off the side of his head. "We will show that China can contribute."
Liu spoke on Saturday as his comrades in a 315-member engineering unit shipping out next month went through their paces for foreign reporters in China's latest attempt to play down accusations it is worsening Darfur's agony by supporting the Khartoum regime.
PHOTO: AFP
The unit will build bridges and roads, dig wells and perform other tasks, and they showed they mean business at a military training facility in central Henan Province.
Under a glaring sun, the unit's bulldozers turned a churned-up stretch of ground into a smooth road in minutes, and 50 soldiers used their bare hands to move a 40m stretch of steel bridge into place over a ditch in seconds.
Elsewhere, another squad needed only a few moments to put a roof on an aluminum hut with "UN" emblazoned on its side, while others pummelled unseen enemies with martial arts moves in a snarling show of force.
The carefully choreographed display resembled a three-ring circus but the message was clear: China won't be cast as the villain.
"We will naturally face difficulties and challenges," Colonel Dai Shaoan told reporters. "But we are good at hardship, at fighting, and at making contributions."
A true Chinese change of heart would be welcomed by critics.
The Khartoum regime is criticized for backing militias that have waged a brutal campaign in rebel areas of Darfur which the UN says has led to more than 200,000 deaths in the past four years. The US has termed it genocide.
China, which is the biggest buyer of Sudan's oil, is accused of shielding Khartoum from international action, and some foreign activists have warned the situation will tarnish next year's Beijing Olympics.
But as the pressure has mounted, China recently played a role in getting Khartoum to sign off, after years of foreign pressure, on a new UN-African Union peacekeeping force to be deployed next year.
Yet China needs to do far more, says Jill Savitt, director of US-based pressure group Dream for Darfur.
"China is not yet doing enough. We have to remember that China played an obstructionist role for four long years," she said.
Savitt said China must contribute real combat troops, halt arms sales to Khartoum and threaten consequences if Sudan President Omar El-Bashir backslides.
Lieutenant Li Xinying bristles at such suggestions, using the halting English that has been part of his unit's training.
"No Western countries should put the blame on China. We are not responsible for the actions of the Sudan government," he said.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
RSS