The only way to alter China's hand in Darfur

Shame won't work. But enlisting its self-interest can.

from the April 30, 2008 edition

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Rather than attempts at embarrassment, sanctions, threats, or a serious military intervention that China would interpret as a challenge to its control of the oil fields, the focus should be on tying diplomatic and economic efforts together coherently, to enlist China constructively.

This can be done – because it has been done, in dealing with North Korea's nuclear ambitions. In 2006 the US pushed to get expanded voting rights for China in the International Monetary Fund, to reflect its weight in the world economy. The quid pro quo Treasury Secretary Paulson promoted was a "hope," as he gently put it, that more power in the IMF would motivate China to allow its artificially low currency to float to a market exchange rate (helping US and EU exports).

China's currency started to float. What wasn't mentioned publicly was that the offer of more IMF voting shares was also used to help get Beijing's aid in squeezing North Korea, by reducing its financial assistance to Pyongyang. And it worked.

If the Bush administration is looking for a legacy making move, the famously siloed departments of State, Treasury, and the US Trade Representative (USTR) could quietly offer meaningful incentives for China to play a more active role in resolving the Darfur crisis.

China has a significant interest in even modest changes to US and EU farm subsidies, for example, to make its food exports more attractive. Those subsidies are widely considered excessive. USTR has already urged "ambitious cuts" in subsidies to revive trade talks – cuts that could be applied as part of an economic brake lever on mass slaughter.

We have similar openings in trade and currency negotiations, peaceful technology transfer, scientific collaboration, environmental control technology, bioscience, and technical assistance on any number of fronts – some or all of which, negotiated deliberately, can align China's economic interests with the West's agenda in Darfur.

Attempts to gain cooperation through humiliation feel righteous, but won't deliver results. Only when we positively address China's economic self-interest, and its desperate need for energy, will the West find the humanitarian solution it seeks.

• Mark Lange is a journalist and a former presidential speechwriter.

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