Now that rebel forces have gained control of large areas of Gadhafi’s last stronghold, the capital of Tripoli, most governments, including the United States and Europe, have reiterated their position that Gadhafi’s regime has lost legitimacy and that Libya’s people deserve to control their own destiny.
The Chinese regime in Beijing, though, has taken contradictory stances toward the efforts to overthrow the Libyan tyranny.
Originally, Beijing’s autocrats saw the Libyan people’s discontent as sure to fail. Only in recent days, when it appeared inevitable that Gadhafi’s rule was at its end, did Beijing make a late-course correction and acknowledge that an unpopular leader was doomed.
Playing the Peace Card
Thousands of Libyans, encouraged by the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia earlier this year, staged protests throughout the country demanding the abdication of their leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. The Gadhafi government countered with a bloody military suppression.
Subsequently, more and more Libyan government officials turned against Gadhafi as civilian casualties mounted. Even though the rebel armed forces could not initially compete with Gadhafi’s state army, the tide began to turn once the rebels received international air support.
On March 17, the United Nation’s Security Council passed a resolution authorizing intervention to protect Libyan civilians; U.S.-led airstrikes against Gadhafi began two days later.
In a statement on March 20 replying to a press inquiry about China’s stance regarding the multinational use of force against Libya, Jiang Yu, spokeswoman with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “We regret hearing that force was used. China’s consistent stance is that we are against using military forces in international relationships.”
The West condemned Gadhafi’s use of force against civilians and lauded NATO’s mission of protecting ordinary Libyans. The Ministry made no mention of either.
China’s official mouthpiece, People’s Daily, even went as far as to compare the NATO bombings to Iraq, trumpeting in a March 21 commentary: “The Western countries’ bombardment of Libya appears to be acting ‘under the cloak of humanism,’ but it is a stark-naked invasion similar to what happened to Iraq. The world’s people, including the Chinese, cannot tolerate this sort of conduct.”
Popular Will Reluctantly Accepted
The rebel forces grew stronger, entering Tripoli and finding little resistance on Aug. 20. But Zhang Zhaozhong, a high-ranking military official and also a professor at China’s National Defense University, wasn’t convinced of Gadhafi’s downfall, remarking on CCTV’s military channel the following day: “Gadhafi has been resisting the rebels for five months already. I believe he will have no problem holding on for another year.”
The official tone then made a drastic reversal. On Aug. 22, Ma Zhaoxu, the spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a press conference that China’s regime “respects the choice of the Libyan people,” after widespread reports that Libyan rebel forces had advanced deep into Tripoli and had proclaimed that the capital city was under their control.
At the same time, the Global Times, a state-owned Chinese newspaper, conducted a public survey asking whether the toppling of Gadhafi’s government would bring social stability to Libya. Eighty-eight percent of the interviewees said “no.”
Further Chinese sentiment from official sources and experts expressed cynicism over the true engine behind the Libyan uprising and skepticism over the prospect of peace in the North African country.
The vice president of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations and Middle East expert Li Shaoxian, in a Aug. 22 response to questions posted on People’s Daily Online, said: “Western military interventions are for economical and political purposes. Politically, they want Libya to take the Western democratic route; economically, they have targeted Libya’s oil and gas resources.”
Responding to Libya’s recent resistance against dictatorship, Xinhua commented on Aug. 23: “Libya’s future ability to achieve a real sense of “smooth transition” is actually difficult to predict. People are worried that a civil war will start again in Libya.”
Betting Both Ways
The Chinese regime had extensive economic interests tied to Gadhafi. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commence revealed in March that recently China had a total of 50 large construction projects in Libya, with the contracts amounting to US$18.8 billion.
All these projects have been suspended and most of the personnel have been sent back to China. The losses are significant and yet to be tallied.
Libya’s oil is of great interest to China. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released data in early August indicating that China depends on imports for 55.2 percent of its oil, exceeding America in its reliance on foreign sources for its energy needs.
At present, China has 3 percent of its oil imported from Libya. The production of Libya’s oil has been dominated by Chinese companies invited in by Gadhafi.
As the military and political situation started to become more unfavorable for Gadhafi’s regime, Russia on May 24 acknowledged Libya’s rebel-backed National Transitional Council as a negotiating partner.
Russia’s move left China isolated in its opposition to the Libyan rebels. China and Russia had allied to abstain during the vote on the United Nations’ declarations and military actions against the Gadfahi regime.
Prompted by Russia' move, the Chinese Communist Party changed its position and began to interact with the Libyan opposition. Communist Party media such as Xinhua News and the China News Service changed their terminology. Instead of calling Libyan citizens opposing Gadhafi as “rebels against the government,” they began referring to them as the “military force of the opposition.”
In the past two months, Chinese diplomats in different locations have conducted meetings with members of Libya’s National Transitional Council, including inviting them to visit China.
Li Shaoxian has also said that China “had already started to contact members of the National Transitional Council in May” and that they had supplied the Benghazi-based rebels with 50 million Yuan (US$7.8 million) of aid.
Whether this recent spate of activity will allow the Chinese regime to preserve its position in Libya remains to be seen. According to recent media reports, some members of the National Transitional Council have spoken in opposition to Chinese companies continuing to pump Libya’s oil. These individuals, at least, prefer to do business with companies from those countries who supported the rebels’ efforts all along.
