DARFUR UPDATE: It’s easy to see why the U.N. has been paralyzed:

The answer is that China plays by a different set of rules. As China’s support for the rogue regimes in Iran and Sudan has made clear, moral constraints and human-rights considerations are not pillars of Beijing’s foreign-policy calculus. While Tehran threatens to go nuclear and Khartoum continues its genocide in Darfur, Beijing has used its clout (and U.N. veto) to shield these regimes from international sanctions. In return, it receives entree into two important energy markets. . . .

The fact that China has overpaid for recent ventures in Oman, Sudan and elsewhere is telling. Rather than investing in money-makers, China is buying footholds throughout the Middle East.

These footholds are popping up everywhere. While China’s relations with Saudia Arabia and Iran have received the most press, its dealings in countries such as Oman and Sudan are even more extraordinary. In Sudan, China is the single largest shareholder of an oil company consortium that dominates Sudan’s oil industry and the chief investor in the country’s largest pipeline.

Meanwhile, in a possibly-unrelated development, there’s resistance among many third-world nations to the idea of the United Nations intervening to promote democracy and prevent genocide. Norm Geras notes a parallel, here.