Feds Downplay Chinese Role in Sudan

UPI Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2000 WASHINGTON  State Department and military intelligence sources are disputing reports that China has deployed "tens of thousands" of troops to Sudan to help guard oil fields in which a Chinese corporation is a key partner. "The figure of tens of thousands of troops is just not credible based on the information available to us," a State Department official said, on the condition his name not be used.

The official conceded that China has a substantial economic interest and a large military sales program in Sudan and that Chinese troops have been deployed in the north African country.

"But we can't tell how many are involved in providing security," the official said.

However, an intelligence official following the issue said classified reports gathered from spies indicate China may indeed be planning to deploy a large number of troops to Sudan, but it would not do so imminently.

The British newspaper the Telegraph reported this week that 700,000 Chinese troops had been put on alert to go to Sudan to lead an offensive against rebels in that country's 17-year-old civil war.

" 'Alert' is too strong a word," the intelligence official said. "This operation is still in the planning stages."

The deployment of 700,000 troops anywhere would be an enormous undertaking, the official said, pointing out that it took the United States, which has the strongest airlift fleet in the world, six months to move 400,000 soldiers into Kuwait a decade ago.

"It's an effort to flex its military muscle, expand its influence outside its border," the official told United Press International. "They (the Chinese) are just not known as a nation that can export a military force, so this is something they really want to do."

The official said the Sudan operation appears to be an "experiment with overseas operations" for a military that has carried out the bulk of its work on land contiguous to China.

The Telegraph cited Western counterterrorism officials who claim that an internal document from the Sudanese military said as many as 700,000 Chinese security personnel were available for action. Three flights a week have been taking the Chinese into Sudan since work on the oilfields started three years ago, according to these sources.

The Telegraph quoted a Western aid worker in southern Sudan as saying: "Everyone knows what is going on. We've all seen the Chinese being brought in and can only pray about what's going to happen next."

http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/29/202711

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 31, 2000