The Facts: China’s Arms Sales to Sudan

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In the run up to the Olympics, China is engaging in a major public relations campaign to downplay its arms sales to Sudan, to belittle the extent of its influence with Khartoum, and to claim credit for playing a positive role in bringing security to Darfur. But the facts of China’s military support for the government of Sudan tell a different story.

Sudan’s military expenditures have risen dramatically since 1997, the year of its first oil exports.^[1]

Much of the money for this shopping spree for weapons came from profits made from oil exports to China. And much of the money has gone directly back to China, for purchases of small arms and other military equipment by Sudan.

Small Arms Sales

“Everyone knows that the weapons in Darfur come from different sources … But I can say we have nothing to do with that.”
—Li Chengwen, Chinese Ambassador to Sudan, September 2007^[2]

Sudan’s purchases of small arms, small arms parts, and ammunition have risen dramatically since 1999. By 2005, Sudan’s small arms imports had risen to more than 680 times their 1999 levels. ^[3]

From 2003 to 2006, the period covering the worst abuses by Sudanese government forces in Darfur, China sold over $55 million worth of small arms to Khartoum.

Since 2004, the year in which the United Nations Security Council imposed an embargo on arms transfers to Darfur, China has been the near-exclusive provider of small arms to Khartoum, supplying approximately 90 percent of Sudan’s small arms purchases each year.^[4]

Observers on the ground in Darfur have reported seeing Chinese weaponry, including grenade launchers and ammunition for assault rifles and heavy machine guns.^[5]

Aircraft and Heavy Weapons

“Images from the parade have revealed to the world that the Sudanese army resembles a second Chinese Liberation Army.”
—A defense analyst describing a military parade celebrating Sudan’s 52nd Independence Day in 2007^[6]

In 2003, China sold up to 20 A-5C Fantan fighter-bombers, capable of delivering 4,000 pounds of bombs in a single strike, to Sudan.^[7]

In 2005, the Chinese company Dongfeng exported more than two hundred military trucks to Sudan. New trucks of a similar type were seen later that year on a Sudanese air force base in Darfur,^[8] and military trucks have been used to transport Sudanese soldiers to sites where civilians have been attacked.^[9]

In 2006, Sudan received six K-8 advanced trainer aircraft, which can be fitted for ground attack combat, from China. ^[10]

In 2007, television footage from a military parade celebrating Sudan’s 52nd Independence Day showed that Sudan had late-model battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and military trainers from China.^[11]

Sudan is said to be currently in negotiations with China for the purchase of 12 Chinese FC1 Fighter aircraft.^[12]

Arms Sales to Sudan During the U.N. Embargo

In 2004, U.N. Security Council resolution 1556 imposed a mandatory embargo on weapons transfers to Darfur, which is binding upon all member states including China and Sudan.^[13]

Initially limited to transfers of arms to “all nongovernmental entities and individuals,” the Security Council, with resolution 1591, extended the embargo to transfers of arms to agents of the Sudanese government operating in Darfur in March 2005. ^[14]

Khartoum has openly stated its refusal to abide by the arms embargo, claiming that it has a “sovereign right to transfer weapons … into Darfur.”^[15]

Chinese officials initially denied that China was selling weapons to Sudan in spite of the embargo.^[16] They now admit that sales continue, but say the transfers are minor and that the weapons do not end up in Darfur.^[17]

Observers on the ground in Darfur have reported seeing a range of Chinese weaponry, including assault rifles, heavy machine guns, antiaircraft guns, antitank weapons, and mortars.^[18]

Faced with Sudan’s defiance of its legal obligations under the embargo, China’s continued weapons sales to the government of Sudan, knowing that those weapons have been found in Darfur, puts China in the position of also failing to comply with the embargo.

Military Cooperation

“China is further willing to develop cooperation between the two militaries in every sphere.”^[19]
– Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, April 2007

From 2002 to 2007, top-ranking officials of the Sudanese and Chinese armed forces exchanged visits and held meetings on at least six occasions.^[20] Several of these visits occurred during the period of heaviest violence in Darfur.

An October 2005 meeting between Chinese military commanders and the Sudanese minister of national defense resulted in a plan for China to improve Sudan’s armed forces.^[21]

An April 2007 meeting between the chief of staff of the Sudanese armed forces and the chief of general staff of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) led to additional promises to increase cooperation between the two countries’ militaries.^[22]

Support for Sudan’s Arms Manufacturing Industry

“[M]ost ammunition currently used by parties to the conflict in Darfur is manufactured either in the Sudan or in China.”^[23]
– U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts, January 2006

Chinese companies reportedly assisted the Sudanese government in establishing three assembly plants for small arms and ammunition outside Khartoum, ^[24] which are said to produce heavy and light machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars, antitank weapons, and ammunition.^[25]

One account of the Giad industrial complex near Khartoum indicated that Chinese engineers were supervising the facility’s work.^[26]

Recommendations:

If China wants admiration at the Olympics, it must cease its support of the government of Sudan. First and foremost, China should:

• Immediately terminate arms transfers to all parties involved in the conflict in Darfur, including the Sudanese government, to ensure that the arms embargo imposed by the U.N. Security Council is fully implemented. China also should immediately terminate any other form of military support to the Sudanese government, including training activities.
• Support the expansion of the U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Darfur to the whole of Sudan and prohibit the sale and supply of arms and related materiel to non-state armed groups located in or operating from Chad.

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