China defends weapons for Zimbabwe

Source: yn

"This is normal trade in military products between the two countries," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing. "The relevant contract was signed last year and has nothing to do with the latest situation in Zimbabwe."

Three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes were among the cargo on the Chinese ship, according to the inventory published by a South Africa newspaper.


An attempt to offload the ship in the South African port of Durban was unsuccessful, and it was now headed for Angola, according to the most recent reports.

Jiang said China maintained a prudent policy when it sold weapons overseas, and that Beijing sells only a fraction of the arms that are traded globally.

"We hope relevant parties will not politicise this issue," she said.

"As Zimbabwe could not receive the cargo as scheduled, China Ocean-going Shipping Corp had to give up the Durban port and is now considering carrying back this cargo."

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said Monday it was mobilising against allowing the Chinese ship, An Yue Jiang, from offloading in any African harbour.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, battling to stay in power after last month's disputed elections, defended its right to buy weapons.

"It's our sovereign right to defend ourselves, it's our sovereign right to buy weapons from any legitimate source worldwide and we don't need clearance from anyone," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080422/wl_afp/zimbabwevotechinaweaponstrade

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And is this wrong? Why?

Do I hear F*** china here?

the country is starving and the chinesse are selling weapons to a madman.

china has replaced the white man`s burden in africa

Today, 1 US$ can only get a little more 6 Yuan$.

In this sense, US dollar is worth less and less comparing to the Chinese money.

Today I went to Walgreens, All the cheap stuff (used to be) from China has raised the price. God Damn it! I feel like poor and poor today because the value of the US dollar going down hill quickly.

they issue hundreds of millions of dollars each day....

So cheap, the AK is a major symbol of freedom fighters


Flag of Hezbollah. The bottom text means "The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon". The upper text means "Then surely the party of Allah are they that shall be triumphant". (Quran 5:56) The green text is the name of the group — with the first letter of "Allah" reaching up to grasp a Soviet AK-47.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Hezbollah.svg

from MSNBC:

nah,
never happen

and mobilize to boycott them.


Man, if that's the case, get ready to have more layoffs at Smith & Wesson.

US 45,438,000,000
China 2,881,000,000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry

has been selling $4,255,700,000 more than Chinese has in these six years.

Is that what you trying to tell us?

We need to ask India3 come here to look at these numbers.

US__ 45,438,000,000
China 2,881,000,000
-------------------
DIFF 42,557,000,000

That would be a 42 Billion dollar difference in arms sales over the last seven years. Or to put this another way for every one dollar in Chinese arms sales there are about sixteen dollars of US arms sales.

USA is much much much bigger an arms dealer to the world than China is.

Nobody can afford to buy US assult rifles. The price comparison is ridiculous.

thug regimes like the Sudan when the rest of the world (rightly so) sees a serious moral problem with doing so.

They seem to be taking full advantage of the (capitalist) free market here. Nobody will sell arms to Sudan because they are systematically murdering their Darfur population. Yet the Sudanese demand for arms remains. So China, in the interest of making that sweet sweet $$$, sells their weapons anyway. It's the same with Zimbabwe. Why China is allowed on the UN security council is beyond me.

I guess after tens of millions of your OWN population are killed in a "cultural revolution", a little bitty genocide doesn't seem like such a big deal. Blood money, pure and simple.

And I'm quite capable of criticizing my own government's shortcomings AND China's. Our weapons sales to Iraq in the 80's, for instance, were certainly wrong. So don't bother with the "you can't criticize because America does it to" argument. If that were true, nobody could criticize anybody about anything. It's a concept the Chinese (i.e. YOU) seem to have a tough time grasping. I suppose that's a product of growing up in a country where dissent is a jailable and punishable offense.

How do you know I'm chinese? Why are you so sure?

State to state arms sales are the business of the two involved parties. That's a normal business yet nobody's business. It's a legal business transaction within the international law. As to why they are killing each other, study their history.

You are against it because Nancy Pelosi against it, rihgt? But I don't for a second believe that you or Nancy actually care about the Sudanese. That's right, if you criticize others selling weapons while you have been out-selling them, you are a hypocrite.


First thing we don't want to do as Americans is judging others using our own moral standard which is not necessarily universal. It's called prejudice and bigotry when applying outsdie our own border.


"Why China is allowed on the UN security council is beyond me."

An amazing statement from you.

Time to open a history book.

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We are responsible for outrageous slaughter all around the planet and yet we put on this false front of moral superiority and point fingers at other actors in the same sick game. OH NOES DARFUR! OH NOES ZIMBABWE! So our big ticket items aren't used to slaughter people? Our helicopter gunships are 'good weapons' that only kill 'bad guys'?

guess they do

the world looks the other way. Hitlery is touching on this very issue while stumping today

I suspect the next step will be the importation of Chinese Farmers and their resources to replace the White Farmers thrown out of Zimbabwe by Mugabe.

they keep their rice at home to feed themselves, they send their weapons to Africa, and in the future when the US is completely in the crapper they will make themselves some colonies in Africa to they can have some place to send thier growing population.