South Sudan Secession: What Implications for Darfur and Beijing's Strategic Policy Options?

The political landscape of Sudan, the former largest country of Africa in terms of territory, has witnessed a dramatic change with the January 2011 referendum in South Sudan followed by the official division of the country into two separate independent entities on July 9, 2011, thereby sealing the fate of North and South Sudan. Such a situation presents crucial challenges not only to warring forces in war-driven Darfur but also to major foreign investors such as China; hence the relevance of this paper that seeks to first provide an in-depth analysis of the role of Sudan in Beijing s foreign policy prior to South Sudan s secession before examining the implications that South Sudan s secession might have on the one hand, on the Darfurian political stance towards the Al-Bashir regime and, on the other hand, on Chinese strategic policy options vis-à-vis the region.