China says Sudan divide on agenda as Bashir visits (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Senior Chinese officials will take up the secession of south Sudan during talks with Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who began a state visit to his country's powerful patron on Tuesday after a delay to his arrival.

Bashir had been due to arrive on Monday for a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, one of the few foreign leaders willing to host the Sudanese leader, under indictment by the International Criminal Court over war crimes charges stemming from fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan.

But Bashir failed to show up on time in the Chinese capital, a delay that the Sudanese Foreign Ministry later attributed to a change in his aircraft's flight plan.

He arrived in the early hours of Tuesday and the summit with Hu was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

"This visit will help advance traditionally friendly China-Sudan relations, issues facing north and south Sudan, and the resolution of the problems in the Darfur region," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a briefing.

In comments published earlier by state news agency Xinhua, Hong confirmed that Sudan's "north-south peace process and the Darfur issue" would be on the agenda.

China is a major buyer of Sudanese crude oil, and will be keen to ensure the partition of Sudan into two states, Bashir's north and a more oil-abundant south, will not descend into fighting that could disrupt supplies and damage Beijing's stake on both sides of the new border.

China has been building ties with the emerging state in southern Sudan but remains a major supporter of Bashir, including acting as Khartoum's top arms supplier.

In interviews with official Chinese media, the long-time Sudanese leader mixed reassurances about his commitment to a peaceful secession of the south from July 9, which Beijing has encouraged, with a warning that the split could still go wrong.

The are many "time bombs" in the dividing of Sudan and the possibility of war again erupting between the two sides cannot be excluded, Bashir told the People's Daily, China's main official newspaper, in an interview published on Monday.

Trade between China and Sudan grew to $8.6 billion in 2010, a rise of 35.1 percent on 2009 figures, powered by the rising value of Chinese imports of oil, according to Chinese customs statistics.

Sudan was China's sixth biggest source of imported crude oil last year, when it supplied 12.6 million metric tons, compared with 44.6 million metric tons from the top supplier, Saudi Arabia.

China's special envoy for Africa Affairs and former envoy to Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region, Liu Guijin, told reporters last week that China had "done a lot of work to persuade" the north to implement the peace agreement and referendum.

Khartoum seized the main town in the north-south border region of Abyei on May 21, raising fears the two sides could return to conflict. But Sudan's military and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army last week agreed to withdraw their forces in favor of Ethiopian peacekeepers.

Hong told reporters that Bashir's delayed flight -- due to "technical problems" -- would not affect the visit. But he expressed China's disapproval over the war crimes charges.

"China ... has serious reservations about the complaints lodged against President Bashir," he said.

Human rights groups have urged Beijing to arrest Bashir. China has shrugged off these calls, saying it has every right to host the head of a state with which it has diplomatic relations.

"President Bashir in recent years has visited many countries, and has received warm and friendly treatment. China, in extending a friendly reception to Sudan's visiting head of state, cannot be criticized," Hong said.

(Editing by Ben Blanchard and Robert Birsel)

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Sudanese leader Bashir visits China (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir arrived in China on Tuesday for talks with President Hu Jintao, as the United States and rights groups criticised Beijing for hosting an alleged war criminal.

An AFP journalist saw Bashir's presidential plane touch down in Beijing in the early hours, a day later than planned, after Sudan's foreign ministry said it was forced to choose a "new route" while flying over Turkmenistan.

The change in plans forced an overhaul of Bashir's schedule, but not a cancellation of talks with Hu nor a red-carpet ceremony at the Great Hall of the People for a man who is unwelcome in many countries.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred in Sudan's western Darfur region, where about 300,000 people have died since 2003.

China is a key supporter of the Sudanese leader, who is the first sitting head of state targeted by an ICC arrest warrant.

Beijing is a key military supplier to the regime in Khartoum and the biggest buyer of the country's oil, although the majority of Sudan's oil fields are located in the south, which will become independent on July 9.

Bashir's meetings with Hu and other senior Chinese leaders are now set for Wednesday, according to the foreign ministry in Beijing.

The Sudanese leader had been due to stay in China until Thursday, but it was unclear whether the delay would now prolong his stay. He last visited the country in 2006.

"This visit is the continuation of the distinguished relations between Sudan and China, which have remained friendly and progressive," Bashir told China's official Xinhua news agency in an interview ahead of the trip.

He hailed Beijing as a "strategic partner" and said that China "does not intervene in the internal affairs of others".

Beijing on Tuesday again defended the visit, with foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei saying: "As a friendly country of China, the Sudanese leader's visit to China is quite reasonable."

The spokesman added: "In recent years, President Bashir has made many visits to foreign countries and was warmly welcomed by those countries. He will also be welcomed in China."

He said Bashir's visit would be "conducive to the development of the traditional friendship between China and Sudan, as well as the advancement of the peace process of North-South Sudan" and would touch on Darfur.

Hong attributed Bashir's delayed arrival to "technical reasons".

Officials at the Sudanese embassy in Beijing were not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP.

In the interview with Xinhua, Bashir insisted that southern independence "will not affect the relationship" between Beijing and Khartoum, hailing China as a model "real partner".

The Sudanese leader's visit to China has sparked outrage among rights groups, and earned the reproach of the US State Department.

"We continue to oppose invitations, facilitation, support for travel by ICC indictees," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday.

"We have a longstanding policy of strongly urging other nations to do the same," she said. "We have urged China to join the international community in its call for Sudan to cooperate fully with the ICC."

ICC statutes dictate that any member country should arrest Bashir if he visits. China is not a party to those statutes, nor is the United States.

"We reserve our opinion on the ICC's prosecution against President Bashir," Hong said on Tuesday.

Bashir arrived in China from Iran, where he attended a counter-terrorism summit which also included the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Tajikistan.

New York-based Human Rights Watch described Bashir's trip as "an affront to victims of heinous crimes committed in Darfur" and had urged Beijing to arrest Bashir on arrival.

Amnesty International said earlier this month that China risked becoming a "safe haven for alleged perpetrators of genocide" if it hosted Bashir.

Topics expected to come up in Bashir's talks with Hu include Chinese aid to Sudan and problems in Abyei, a disputed border area claimed both by Bashir's Khartoum-based northern Sudan regime and the rival government in the south.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Monday to send a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei in a bid to douse tensions.

An estimated two million people died in Sudan's two-decade civil war.

A 2005 peace accord, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ended the conflict and allowed for a referendum in January in which the south voted by an overwhelming majority to split from the north.

Abyei did not take part in the referendum because the two sides could not agree who should be eligible to vote.

Fighting is also flaring in South Kordofan, which borders Abyei.

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Chinese premier visits Shakespeare's birthplace (AP)

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – 1?hr?1?min?ago

LONDON – Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, reportedly a big Shakespeare fan, made a pilgrimage to the Bard's birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday.

Wen is in Britain as part of a three-day visit intended to reinforce economic links between the two countries. Britain, like other European nations, is hoping to tap into the emerging economic superpower to help drive its own recovery — a sentiment that was on display as Wen browsed the treasures of the town's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

While Wen saw extracts of "Hamlet" and examined a 17th-century folio of the Bard's famous plays, British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was enthusing about the visit's potential impact on the U.K. tourist industry.

"I am hoping that a billion Chinese might see some pictures on their TV of their premier coming and visiting the birthplace of Shakespeare, and thinking: 'Well, I'd like to go there as well,'" he told Sky News television.

Wen stayed half an hour longer than expected, joked about Hamlet and even called Shakespeare "the greatest writer of all time," according to trust director Diana Owen, who chatted with the 68-year-old Chinese leader during an informal tour.

Wen said that it was important for political leaders to respect "the creativity of the people of other countries."

But his one-party government has a more ambivalent attitude toward artists back at home. Wen's arrival at Birmingham Airport came a few days after Beijing announced the release of outspoken sculptor Ai Weiwei, whose detention highlighted China's sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Ai became well-known in Britain after he filled the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern art gallery with millions of porcelain sunflower seeds, and artists here and elsewhere in Britain have rallied to his defense.

After getting his fill of Shakespeare, Wen turned his focus to manufacturing as he visited a Chinese-owned car plant in Birmingham.

MG, owned by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., China's largest carmaker, designs cars in the U.K., but makes its car parts in China, which are then sent to Britain for assembly. Wen was on hand for a launch ceremony for the MG6 Magnette — the company's new sports sedan — and took a turn sitting in the driver's seat. He's expected to dine with Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg later Sunday.

The Chinese leader is due to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, and although Ai's release may spare Wen some awkward questions about his government's human rights, demonstrations are still planned by pro-Tibet groups over the course of his visit.

Many Tibetans — and their supporters in the West — have demanded independence or autonomy for the Himalayan territory. Beijing claims the area as an integral part of China.

At London's Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, where Wen is believed to be staying, protesters had already gathered, waving Tibetan flags.

Wen, whose tour will take him to Germany once he leaves the U.K., is expected to retire next year amid a major Chinese leadership reshuffle.

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Online:

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

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