China feels the heat on Darfur

CHINA is finally beginning to feel some heat over its shameful silence on atrocities in Darfur. President Hu Jintao has been stirred to call on the Sudanese government to take steps toward peace.

The sudden discovery of a conscience, after five years of saying nothing during the rape of Darfur, owes more to the countdown to the opening of the Beijing Games than to any newly-discovered moral sensibility on the part of the mandarins.

Even if the remarks are simply an attempt to deflect criticism over its ties with Khartoum, they are a sign that pressure works. With this in mind the leverage the international community holds with Beijing should not be forgotten. The importance of the 2008 Olympics to the Chinese is immense.