Ties with South Africa have global impact, Xi Jinping says

Xi – accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan – first stopped in Zimbabwe, where Chinese projects have helped support an economy plunged into crisis under President Robert Mugabe’s rule.

Beside the cheering crowds, giant billboards said, “We share the same dream”, indicating a deeper friendship and mutual understanding between the two countries.

“The visit of President Xi is going to consolidate and cement some of the agreements and in fact undertaking also to further co-operate with respect to those agreements which are not yet mature for signing at this moment”, Chinamasa said. However, opposition officials dismissed Xi’s visit as a mere “public relations exercise” and said. Trade between South Africa and China more than doubled in the four years to 2013 to 271 billion rand ($19 billion), the South African statistics office said.

Chinese grants to Zimbabwe over the past three years totaled 100 million USA dollars.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has put forward the policy of Look East since 2002, which stands in conformity with China’s policy towards Africa.

“We should forge a global partnership at both worldwide and regional levels, and embrace a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features dialogue rather than confrontation, and seeks partnership rather than alliance”, Xi notes. In addition to China’s mining interests in cash-strapped Zimbabwe, the 12 agreements cover industries such as power and transport, and prevent double taxation for investors, according to the Herald, a state-owned Zimbabwean newspaper.

President Xi Jinping’s five-day trip to Africa comes as the continent suffers more than anywhere else from China’s slowing economic growth and an associated rout in the value of the region’s commodities exports. The Chinese government is unrivalled in its willingness to fund big infrastructure projects in Africa, although American companies still provide the highest foreign direct investment to African countries, she said.

“South Africa is economically the most developed and politically the most stable among the countries in Africa”, Zhang said. China is a major market of ivory and rhino horn poached from African pachyderms. Xi plans to travel to South Africa on Wednesday, where he will meet President Jacob Zuma and later co-chair the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Johannesburg.

But the airport was ablaze with colour this morning as many locals and the few Chinese residents went to greet the Chinese leader as they and so many other are hoping – desperately – that the failing and ever-shrinking economy will be rescued by China.

Radebe said Africa has been branded as a continent of doom characterised by malnourished babies, poverty, crime, conflict and squalor.

“The summit will not only deepen and upgrade Africa-China relations, but will synergise China-Africa development strategies”, said Executive Chairman of Independent Media, Dr Iqbal Survé.