Just last month, the surprisingly competitive French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou threatened a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics if China continued to protect the Sudanese government from the international community’s attempts to intervene in Darfur. Bayrou said that the Olympics were now “a political issue because China decided to bring its protection to the Khartoum regime.” The Chinese were outraged that Bayrou would make such an accusation. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that “the people who put forward those remarks are not very clear on China’s position on the Darfur issue.” In what must be an effort to clear up that position for ignorant foreign leaders, the People’s Daily now reports that “China and Sudan vowed in Beijing Monday to boost military exchanges and cooperation in various sectors.”