China’s Xi Jinping in Zimbabwe for talks with Mugabe

Mugabe has said the economy is poised for a major take-off with China’s help.

Xi inspected a guard of honour mounted at Harare airport’s domestic terminal.

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.

“As for whether China will continue to provide support and aid, there will be no doubt about it”, Zhang said, without divulging details on the aid amount and its goal.

The Second FOCAC Summit is expected to consolidate these gains and further reconstruct global affairs by exploring new models and approaches towards a more equitable and inclusive system that promotes sustainable socio-economic development.

“The Chinese always emphasise that its economic engagement in Africa is not altruistic.

President Xi Jinping will likely be seeking new markets for Chinese manufactured goods, access to cheaper labour and production capacity, and securing precious metals, such as Zimbabwe’s gold, diamonds and other minerals that are in consumer manufacturing”, added Hill.

Zhang Chun, an expert on Africa at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said China had invited South Africa to join the BRICS bloc, which also includes Brazil, Russia and India.

Xi’s itinerary starts with a state visit hosted by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a longtime Chinese ally who now heads the African Union. Chinese enterprises have also aided African countries in developing their mining, forestry and service industries.

Added to that, Asmal said there had already been some Chinese investment in beneficiation, particularly in Ethiopia.

They waved Zimbabwean and Chinese miniature flags in a public display of the friendship and solidarity that exists between the two countries traceable to the pre-independence era when China offered material and moral support to the freedom fighters waging a war against British colonial rule.

While China is Africa’s biggest trading partner, with two- way flows exceeding $220 billion a year ago, the pace of investment has slowed.

“[China] has made huge investment in infrastructure and energy development and agriculture against Western-inspired propaganda about Zimbabwe’s high risk factor”, the paper said.

There are many interpretations given to a famous Chinese proverb which says, “if you are planning for a year grow grain, if you are planning for 10 years grow trees, but if you are planning for 100 years grow men”. “This is nearly an exponential rise in the relationship between China and Africa”.

Zimbabwe has increasingly relied on China to invest in new infrastructure like roads, power and water plants after the country became a pariah in the West for its alleged abuses of human rights and the electoral process. Data released at the Zimbabwe-China Business Forum held on Monday shows Zimbabwe is now Chinese investors’ 6th most preferred destination in Africa. 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.