The Chinese government has approached newly created South Sudan to help negotiate the release of Chinese captives held by rebels in neighboring Sudan, said a South Sudan official, an unusual diplomatic move that risks complicating China's ties with two resource-rich African nations.
The move highlights the thorny terrain Beijing must negotiate as it steps out more on the diplomatic stage. The hostage drama comes after China had emerged as a chief negotiator in an oil-transit dispute between the two Sudans—an unfamiliar role for a country that has stuck to a policy of noninterference in other countries' affairs, yet one analysts say it will have to increasingly take on as its economic clout grows.
China, through its representatives in Sudan's capital Khartoum, asked the South Sudan government Wednesday to mediate the release of 29 hostages held by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. The Chinese "have made an approach," said the South Sudan official. "They want our government to help."
The overture appears to be in line with thinking that South Sudan is better placed to secure a deal, given its ties with the SPLM-N rebels, who have called for a halt to the military offensive by Sudan's armed forces as a condition for the hostages' release.
Tensions between the neighbors are expected to complicate any mediation role China may play. Sudan has accused its southern neighbor of orchestrating the attack on the Chinese workers. Rabie Abdelaty, the Sudan government spokesman, said Thursday that South Sudan spent several months spying on Chinese-funded projects in the disputed border regions and planning the kidnappings.
"We know their game plan, and we have warned them to stop destabilizing our territories," he said. South Sudan officials have denied these accusations.
The abduction has underscored the risks of China's strategy to scour the globe for resources—including some of the world's most dangerous spots—in a bid to boost economic growth, create jobs and maintain political stability back home.
In places such as Sudan that has entailed trying to keep political tensions at bay, even if it means ruffling feathers of old allies, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague in connection to crimes against humanity.
But unlike in earlier years, when Beijing could claim its ties to Sudan as strictly business, its recent attempts to act as a more-relevant political power in the countries appears to be making its workers there prone to new risks.
The kidnapping case could provide insights into how willing China is to negotiate with criminal gangs, rebels and other groups that increasingly attack its citizens abroad. Additionally, an emerging rift with Sudan, one of China's most important African allies, over its handling of the crisis could upend China's role as a mediator in the simmering oil-transit dispute.
China on Thursday said a worker shot by rebels during a rescue attempt by Sudanese forces had most likely died. The state-run Xinhua news agency, quoting an unnamed official at the Chinese Embassy in Khartoum, reported that the worker was one among at least 18 who had escaped from a Chinese road-construction camp in the South Kordofan region during an attack by rebels on Saturday. Rebels captured another 29, which remain in captivity.
"The Sudanese army is continuing its search for the missing Chinese worker, but after five days since his injury, the possibility of finding him alive seems very small," the official was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
The Chinese Embassy in Sudan has referred questions on the incident to the Foreign Ministry, which has not responded to repeated requests for comment this week.
Details on whether China is offering any concessions to South Sudan—in exchange for mediation rover the hostages—remain scant. But as a big investor in Sudan, and a buyer of oil of South Sudan, China is expected to have some leverage.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July last year under a 2005 peace deal aimed at bringing an end to more than two decades of war. Under the agreement, South Sudan retained at least 75% of the oil fields, but relies on pipelines and ports in Sudan to ship oil exports. The transit dispute between the two centers on how much the south should pay to use the north's infrastructure.
South Sudan has suspended oil shipments to the north until a deal is reached. President Salva Kirr said Monday that in addition to the dispute on oil transit fees, the two countries must reach agreement on border security and the disputed regions before South Sudan restarts oil shipments.
The United Nations has warned that the oil crisis between the two countries is a major threat to regional peace and security.
On Thursday, Lise Grande, United Nations humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, warned that the suspension of oil shipments could have disastrous consequences for the country's population, pushing large numbers into food insecurity.
"What we're looking at even before the oil shut down is a very precarious situation," Ms. Grande said, adding that the impact of an oil shut down on top of this could be "almost catastrophic."
South Kordofan—the area where the Chinese workers were abducted—remains a bitterly-contested region between the two sides. The region is oil-rich and remained in the north after the demarcation but ethnically its inhabitants are closer to South Sudan.
Mr. Abdelaty, the Sudan government spokesman, said that the Sudan armed forces were closing in on the mountainous Nuba region in South Kordofan, where the hostages are believed to be held.
