The Chinese are, rightly, proud of what they have accomplished in the last few decades. In the past 30 years the number of poor in China has declined from some 250 million (1978) to less than 22 million (2006). That is, less than 3% of Chinese are poor now, compared to one-third 30 years ago. China has moved from being very near the bottom of the human development table in 1950 to having mid-range Human Development indicators today. And it is on target for many of the Millennium Development Goals, even though progress in the rural areas lags behind, as seen in the slow improvement of health and water service delivery in rural areas. Indeed, China has lessons to teach the world about economic development.

Like any other nation, China brings its own historically determined outlook to the international community, which is also rooted in its current self interest. This is particularly evident in statements by the Chinese government about respecting the sovereignty of nations. It maintains, very strongly, its opposition to any outside interference in the domestic affairs of any country.

This is also the stance of dictators, which raises immediate suspicions about the motives of the Chinese government. Indeed, a closer look provides support for our suspicion that there are things going on in China that it doesn’t want the international community to concern itself with.

This of course includes Tibet where, in the early 1950s, Mao Zedong acted upon China’s claim of sovereignty and invaded the tiny, backward nation. Orchestrated by the Chinese state, major political, social and economic transformations followed. Any resistance was crushed, and control, though nominally in the hands of ethnic Tibetans, remains with the Chinese state and Communist Party. The recent uprising in the Tibet Autonomous Region sparked riots among other ethnic minority communities within China (which incorporates over 50 ethnicities, dominated by the Han Chinese), giving the Chinese authorities reason to act swiftly and surely. Similarly, Beijing brooks no interference in its relationship with Taiwan, and expects full support from its friends for its ‘one China’ policy.

China’s human rights record is viewed with concern by the international community. Human Rights Watch, for example, reminds us that ‘the country remains a one-party state that does not hold national elections, has no independent judiciary, leads the world in executions, aggressively censors the Internet, bans independent trade unions, and represses minorities such as Tibetans, Uighurs, and Mongolians’. Social unrest arising from distress about housing, migration, political freedoms, poverty and other domestic issues is dealt with severely. (www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/china12270.htm).

Moreover, in asserting that a country’s domestic politics are its own affair alone, China aims to prevent the international community from scrutinising its interactions abroad. But in joining the global community, China must realise that this is not how the world works today. We have moved beyond the 1950s. Decades of marching against the Bomb, of anti-colonialist and anti-apartheid campaigning, a string of anti-poverty events linked up across the globe, the coming together of civil activists from all over the world to work on poverty, the emergence of an international climate-change coalition, the wide-spread revulsion of the American invasion of Iraq, the creation of international agreements on blood diamonds and corporate corruption – these and other global movements demonstrate that citizens and states increasingly see events, wherever they take place, as interconnected.

As the Olympic Torch hot-foots it around the world under the watchful eye of Chinese guards, the Chinese vessel An Yue Jiang navigates the western Indian Ocean searching for a place to off-load three million AK-47 bullets, 1,500 rockets and 3,500 Chinese-made mortar shells for delivery to Robert Mugabe in poor, benighted (and landlocked) Zimbabwe. The ship showed up in Durban port last week, at just about the same time as southern African leaders came together in Lusaka at an extraordinary SADC meeting, to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe. The results of the recent election have yet to be published and the Presidential incumbent of 28-years, Robert Mugabe has insisted that a ‘run off’ election be scheduled. Meanwhile the army has started a vicious campaign of intimidation and beatings to ensure that voters mark their ballots the ‘right’ way this time. Saying nothing about the violence, the eight SADC leaders at Lusaka urged the Zimbabwean authorities to hold the second round of elections in a ‘free environment’.

While President Mbeki of South Africa declared there is ‘no crisis’ in Zimbabwe and his government declined to stop the shipment of arms being offloaded at Durban, civil society acted. Trade unions in South Africa – specifically the 300,000-strong Transport and Allied Workers Union – refused to unload the weapons, which were reportedly ordered three days after the elections. The ship weighed anchor and left for a port unknown. The Justice Alliance urged the South African courts to take ‘judicial notice of the brutal military campaign of repression’ underway in Zimbabwe and the port authorities in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town to turn away the vessel if it approaches. Meanwhile civil society activists from all over the world are pressing government and activists (http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/885) to stop the Chinese weapons being off-loaded in Angola, which receives heavy doses of Chinese investment and assistance, if it shows up there (Reuters, 19 April 2008; Sunday Times (SA), 20 April 2008).

In this day and age how can any government argue that the sale of arms to a ruler such as Mugabe – who is determined to hold onto power through violence and theft of an election – is ‘non-interference in the domestic affairs’ of a country? How can the Chinese hold a torch alight and claim to be promoting ‘peace’ and ‘friendship’ internationally? The global community is watching closely to see just what kind of friend-to-Africa (http://english.focacsummit.org) and emerging super power China is likely to become.