Like I’ve heard former congressman Rev. Walter Fauntroy say before, “money rules in all matters.”

This seems to be holding true for China. China, in its capacity as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council has long blocked attempts for sanctions against Sudan for it’s policies on Darfur. However, it’s interesting to see how the pull of the purse strings can make even mighty China take notice. China is set to hold the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. However, it is getting some really bad press over its support of the Sudan and it fears that it could hurt attendance (read: money) for its hosting of the Olympics.

So, in a stunning move, China is now pressuring Sudan to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in the region.

How did this come about? You could chalk it up to the work of some Hollywood luminaries (sadly, none of them black but, we may address that some other time):

So what gives? Credit goes to Hollywood — Mia Farrow and Steven Spielberg in particular. Just when it seemed safe to buy a plane ticket to Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games, nongovernmental organizations and other groups appear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link the Olympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killings in Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concerned about.

Ms. Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund, has played a crucial role, starting a campaign last month to label the Games in Beijing the “Genocide Olympics” and calling on corporate sponsors and even Mr. Spielberg, who is an artistic adviser to China for the Games, to publicly exhort China to do something about Darfur. In a March 28 op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, she warned Mr. Spielberg that he could “go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games,” a reference to a German filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda films.

Four days later, Mr. Spielberg sent a letter to President Hu Jintao of China, condemning the killings in Darfur and asking the Chinese government to use its influence in the region “to bring an end to the human suffering there,” according to Mr. Spielberg’s spokesman, Marvin Levy.

China soon dispatched Mr. Zhai to Darfur, a turnaround that served as a classic study of how a pressure campaign, aimed to strike Beijing in a vulnerable spot at a vulnerable time, could accomplish what years of diplomacy could not.

So, money does indeed rule the day. I really don’t care what tactics are employed as long as the people of Darfur get the help they so desperately need.

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