Africa summit: President Xi Jinping heads to Johannesburg as Chinese

Xi was received at Harare International Airport by his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe with whom he was expected to hold a closed door meeting at State House in Harare later on Tuesday.

China President Xi Jinping visits Zimbabwe on December 1 and 2 and South Africa on the 2nd and 3rd, before co-chairing the conference in Africa’s most industrialised economy which several African heads of state are expected to attend.

Xi said the traditional friendship between the two countries was forged during the two countries’ anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and anti-hegemony wars.

Still, China has provided much needed financing and training/technical expertise to African countries.

Liu noted investments by Chinese firms in Africa have helped alleviate the continent’s endemic challenges like poverty and unemployment.

“The visit shows Beijing’s interest in “cementing relations between the two countries”, as specified by Xi, who applauded Zimbabwe’s role as acting chair of the African Union in favoring and reinforcing the development of the continent”. It has also prompted some criticism that China’s economic relations with Africa were exploitative and neo-colonial – in fact even more so than Africa’s relations with its former colonial masters, which now often include a greater proportion of value-added exports compared to Africa’s exports to China. “China’s packages towards Africa are going to be more diversified”, said Yun Sun, China expert at the US-based Brookings research organisation. China has also, for the first time, contributed a full battalion of troops to a United Nations peacekeeping mission, sending 700 soldiers to join the UNMISS operation in South Sudan.

Mugabe, for his part, extended a warm welcome to the Chinese president, and expressed deep appreciation for China’s sincerity in dealing with Zimbabwe and other African countries as well as profound gratitude for China’s long-running valuable support for his country in various fields. “Each one of them will add 600MW when undertaken and all of them are near financial closure”.

He said China was also interested in funding the country’s transport infrastructure.

Liu noted that Sino-Africa trade has grown tremendously while partnership in key areas likes infrastructure development, industry, technology and people to people exchanges has flourished.

“As you know the Chinese are already in full support of institutions like NetOne where a facility of $218 million was signed during the official State visit of His Excellency, President Mugabe to China in August a year ago”. We have also benefitted in the tobacco sector which has been revived with over 800million going into Zimbabwe pockets.

“The visit by President Xi is significant in terms of the economic recovery”.

In October, three Chinese companies won the deals to build Zimbabwe’s first large-scale solar power stations, feeding 300 MW electricity to the strained national grid now struggling at less than 1,000 MW against peak demand of 2,200 MW.

“We should never forget the exploits of our national heroes”.

Thousands of people in Harare, Zimbabwe, have lined roads to welcomed Chinese president Xi Jinping.