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BEIJING-China on Tuesday condemned the killing of five of its citizens in Sudan as a terrorist crime and urged the Sudanese government to protect Chinese residents and property.The five men killed on Monday were among nine Chinese oil workers kidnapped in central Sudan over a week ago. Two escaped, but two remain in the hands of the kidnappers.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu expressed "pained grief and condolences" for their families and said President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had told the ministry to do all it could to ensure the safe return of the missing men."China treasures its friendship with Sudan ... We also ask that Sudan, while ensuring the safety of our missing personnel, make all-out rescue efforts," Jiang told a news conference in Beijing.She also urged Sudan to "adopt all beneficial steps to ensure the safety of lives and property of Chinese personnel in Sudan." This was the third such kidnapping in the energy-producing state of South Kordofan in the past year, marking an escalation of risk in the region where China has a big stake.South Kordofan borders Darfur, where China has become a focus of controversy over bloody ethnic strife that has raged there since 2003. Beijing has contributed to a peacekeeping mission seeking to end the strife, but critics say its oil deals and arms sales help prop up Khartoum and abet its policies in Darfur.The Sudanese Foreign Ministry blamed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, for seizing and killing the Chinese. A London-based JEM official has denied the group was involved.The nine workers were snatched near a small oilfield where they were doing contract work for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). The company is a consortium led by China's CNPC that includes India's ONGC, Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet.As in the days of Noah...
