Chinese President In Struggling Zimbabwe For Talks With Mugabe

Mr Mugabe, whose country is struggling with mass company closures, high unemployment, low liquidity and foreign direct investment and food shortages, has said he and the Chinese leader will discuss “some of the projects and programmes we want China to assist us in undertaking”.

Peng accompanied her husband President Xi Jinpeng on his state visit to Zimbabwe.

The Asian giant previous year imported from the country $840 million mainly in tobacco and cotton, while Beijing exported to Zimbabwe $400 billion in merchandise.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, at the head of a high-level delegation, has departed the country to participate in the Second Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, South Africa scheduled to take place from December 4 to 5, 2015.

“To our Chinese friends we say, ‘You don’t just come, you have to respect our rules”, the Zimbabwean leader said at a gathering of the ruling party.

Already, Chinese currency yuan was given the legal status to circulate in Zimbabwe, where there has been no local currency since its demobilisation amid hyper-inflation six years ago.

China is the largest foreign investor in Zimbabwe with interests ranging from construction and energy to telecommunications.

In its efforts for economic revival, Zimbabwe is seeking more value-added industries, such as the processing of raw materials in the country, he said.

Wang boasted in his speech that “China has sent more peacekeepers to Africa than the other four permanent members of the Security Council”.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has strongly pursued a “Look East” policy since the West isolated him over his controversial land reform programme.

It has been proven that China’s agenda of non-interference with domestic affairs has been particularly directed to African states where it will produce the most economic and political benefits for the Chinese. Minister Chinamasa said funding for a number of deals that were signed during President Mugabe’s visit to China was expected to be agreed on.

SinoHydro is also now working on the $500 million Kariba South expansion project, which is expected to bring an extra 300MW to the national grid by 2018. Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi has also commented that China’s relationship with Africa is imperialist, removing natural resources from the region. China has a significant role to play in sectors such as power supply and transportation, he said.

He said both countries share the same development goal. These include deepening cooperation in the areas of infrastructure development, debt relief, industrialization, investment promotion, market access expansion, agriculture, science and technology, health, education, and people-to-people cultural exchanges, among others. Chinese defence officials last week confirmed that Beijing was in talks with Djibouti to build military logistics “facilities” there to support Chinese peacekeeping and anti-piracy missions.

Xi’s visit will raise the profile of Zimbabwe as a safe destination for Chinese investment and tourists, she said.