Zimbabwe-China relations: Reflecting on fruitful year

ON December 14, Mr Guo Shaochun, China’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe left the country, after serving a successful three years and nine months tenure in Harare.

Four days earlier, Mr Guo had bade President Mnangagwa farewell at State House.

Mr Guo’s end of duty in Zimbabwe coincided with the end of the year – one of the most remarkable years of cooperation between the two sides. It is no doubt that Mr Guo expertly steered this positive cooperation by working hard and amicably with the host nation, something that deepened relations between the two sister countries.

Guo Shaochun, former China’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe

He managed to set the bar really high for diplomatic ties between the two countries as well as the larger international cooperation between Zimbabwe and other countries.

Indeed, Mr Wu Peng, the Director general of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China noted in a Twitter post that, “Higher political mutual trust and more fruitful practical cooperation between us (China and Zimbabwe) have been achieved during his  (Mr Guo’s) 3 years’ tenure.”

Mr Guo’s diplomatic style, sincerity, humility and personal warmth will significantly underline the successes recorded during his tenure. However, what shines through successes recorded in the period – and particularly in the past year – is how China’s policies are also bearing fruit globally undergirded by policies and frameworks such as Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The former envoy was a good representative of his country, and President Xi Jinping, in advancing the construct of “global shared future”.

Embracing harvest year of cooperation

In May 2022, Mr Guo wrote an article published in the local media, titled: “China, Zim to embrace harvest year in cooperation”. The article was key in outlining successes recorded these past couple of years.

The include:

• The New Parliament Building, the largest China-aid project in Southern Africa, which not only will act as legislative building and other ancillary government work, but also will provide state-of-the-art facilities for Zimbabwe to host large international conferences. The development will be the centre of the new capital city and a hot spot around which a boom of infrastructure construction and commercial activities will emerge in the outskirts of Harare.
• The China-aid National Pharmaceutical Warehouse, where medicines will be stored and managed in much better conditions and space, helping toplug supply chain bottlenecks

Infrastructural development, including the ongoing expansion of Robert Mugabe International Airport, the Hwange Thermal Power Station and Kariba South Hydro expansion as well as telecommunications infrastructure. China also donated 1000 boreholes to poor Zimbabwean communities in dry regions while numerous Chinese companies assisted in undertaking national projects.

Further, under Mr Guo’s watch, Zimbabwe saw increased Chinese investments and capital, which contributed to the development of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe also managed to achieve increased positive trade with China, and China has sought to open its markets to Zimbabwe’s agricultural produce.

Bilateral trade between China and Zimbabwe in the past year shot to over US$1 billion. Foreign Direct Investment fro China reached over US$30 million in 2022.

Mr Guo wrote: “The projects are a testimony to the diligence and grit of our two nations, our profound friendship dating back to the days of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence, and the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation.”

He stated that, “more fruits” were “growing and ripening” in China-Zimbabwe cooperation and this was attributable to  the strategic guidance of the state leaders of the two countries and following the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith.

One of the most remarkable successes of the past year is that Zimbabwe managed to win the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic and returned to near normalcy following the deadly disruptions of the disease experienced since 2020. China has provided medicines and technical guidance for Zimbabwe to battle the pandemic. As the year closes, Zimbabwe is assured of more Covid vaccines donated from China, reaching 12 million doses.

Overcoming detractors

Despite excellent relations and practical cooperation between the two sides, there have been clear and present attempts to drive a wedge between Zimbabwe and China.

These have been manifest in paid propaganda in the media by Western countries, in particular the United States of America. Ironically, China believes that more foreign players can come into Zimbabwe for both bilateral relations, or trilateral cooperation with China also involved.

In communities and companies invested in by China, malcontents also sought to sow seeds of ill-will that could lead to Zimbabweans seeing the Chinese less favourably and the straining of relations between Governments and the people.

However, these attempts were overcome.

China made a lot of efforts in encouraging well-established and capable companies to set up operations in Zimbabwe; to communicate better with stakeholders and to abide by local laws and regulations. For its part, the Chinese community – as businesses and people – have done more to increase friendship, cooperation and amity with local people. This past year saw increased social investments by companies, philanthropists and Chinese groups.

Attempts to separate the two friendly peoples will fail. It is encouraging that the Chinese Embassy here is taking measures to promote people-to-people relations and cultural exchanges to cement bonds of friendship.

Led by its principles of multilateralism, mutual respect, non-interference, openness and transparency, China has shown to be a reliable and dependable friend. The challenge for next year is to build on what has been achieved so far, and in particular during the tenure of Mr Guo, to do even more to strengthen close cooperation for the two countries.

There is need for more investments by big companies to take advantage of Zimbabwe’s natural and human endowments and potential; more political, cultural and social exchanges; new business and trade partnerships and models and the promotion of exchange of information.