Rule-based/Ends-based Morality in China/Darfur Trade

One of the most controversial issues in arms trade today is the China-Darfur link.  China has been accused of providing the Arabic janjaweed with the arms they have used to destroy villages in Darfur.  In return China receives oil to sustain its growing population and economy.  Is this moral?  Should China be allowed to provide weapons to fuel ethnic conflict while providing oil for its own citizens?

            A rule-based perspective clearly says no.  This perspective focuses on solitary actions and choices, not outcomes.  Providing arms for ethnic cleansing is immoral no matter what.  The end result does not even cross the minds of those who hold this perspective.  This action of selling arms for the purpose of tribal conflict is immoral and should not be allowed.

            In contrast, an ends-based perspective focuses on the overall outcome of the situation.  What will happen in the long-term? Will the outcome outweigh the means?  Can any good come out of the trade?  Will the Chinese people greatly benefit?  I believe that this perspective is more applicable to the anarchic nature of world politics.  An ends-based perspective would say that the Chinese were justified in selling the arms to the Sudanese government, if the long-term outcome was beneficial to the Darfur area and the Chinese people.  If the arms only ever benefited the Sudanese government and the janjaweed then the Chinese would not be justified.  However if the arms provided, helped to alleviate conflict/violence and promote justice and equality, even if violence occurred, the Chinese would be justified.  Yet it does not seem that this is the case.  It seems the Chinese made the trade in order to provide their own booming economy with oil and with no care towards the Darfur situation.  Since it has been shown that the Sudanese have provided the janjaweed with Chinese arms in order to massacre villages in Darfur, the trade was not moral. 

However who is to tell the Chinese not to look after their own people?  The Chine population in exploding and it has been shown that the Chinese government has made great strides in decreasing poverty.  Yet I do not believe that the Chinese can benefit because of blatant genocide.  The Chinese cannot fuel an unjust war in order to gain oil. 

            I believe that the arms trade definitely needs more regulation and transparency.  Countries and companies should not be able to deal whatever and to whomever simply to make a profit.  A combination of rule-based and ends-based morality must be used.  The means, intentions, and outcomes of a trade all must be moral, as the tridimensional ethics mentions.

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