THE best way to describe the widely reported Western world’s ‘anger’ over the Sino-Zim mega deals is that gone are the days when the West would have its way and will on other nations’ affairs, especially Zimbabwe.
For Zimbabwe her relationship with the West has been one of unfulfilled promises, but Harare’s engagement with China is one not of promises but tangibles that will transform the country.
When Zimbabwe signed mega economic deals with China and Russia recently, it completed an economic rebirth for one of Africa’s great unfulfilled potential.
For so many years, the West determined the direction Zimbabwe would take but its disengagement from Harare, which became a blessing, was a fatal error of judgment.
It has indeed been a hectic period for the West, which has been making frantic efforts to scuttle the deals Zimbabwe signed with China and Russia.
Ahead of Chinese Ambassador Lin Lin’s presentation at the Midlands State University last week, the West’s sustained media onslaught against his country’s massive investments in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular had exposed what we have always known-that the West’s dominance of the world is dying a natural death.
But that is far from the issue at hand.
The letter that the United States allegedly wrote, threatening Zimbabwe with more punitive sanctions if it did not pull out of the US$3 billion platinum deal with Russia brings to the fore the West’s hypocrisy.
Has the West been taking Zimbabwe for a ride by claiming to be re-engaging with us?
Has the West been fooling us not to do business with China and Russia by dangling the re-engagement carrot?
Has the West been doing underground activities in Zimbabwe while the majority have their eyes on the re-engagement ball?
Has the West been making inroads in the country’s key institutions in the evening while playing the re-engagement ticket in the afternoon?
Going by Ambassador Lin’s presentation in Gweru, it is becoming obvious that the ‘anger’ in question is a realisation by the West that they have lost both grip and ground to the Chinese and Russians on Zimbabwe, hence their fury.
Western media has vented frustrations with their governments for ‘allowing’ the Chinese to do business with Africa.
On August 25, the influential Forbes published a report that laid bare the West’s frustration with how China has been received with warm and open hands to do business with and in Africa.
Titled ‘China Understands What the West Doesn’t: Africa Is Our Next Superpower’, the report makes it clear that China is not in Africa to loot resources, a point made by Ambassador Lin in Gweru.
The Daily Mail of the United Kingdom had an interesting comment penned by one Andrew Malone entitled ‘How China is Taking over Africa, and Why the West Should be Very Worried’.
There was an interesting catch in the paper’s online version.
It had a picture of President Robert Mugabe inspecting a Guard of Honour mounted by the Chinese army during his state visit to the Asian giant in August.
“As is frequently remarked upon, and as a book review in this week’s Economist touches upon, China has a very deliberate and ambitious strategy of investment in Africa,” reads Forbes’ report in part.
“The old categories of ‘neocolonialism’ miss the point. So does the remark that China is only interested in Africa’s natural resources in order to fuel its own manufacturing-driven growth and put its strategic eggs in more than one basket.
“It is this social phenomenon which is driving China’s scramble for Africa, more than ‘neo-colonialism’ or a mere geopolitical grab for oil and soybean fields. And underlying it is an understanding that the West ignores at its future peril: Africa is where the future is.”
The Chinese have been smart enough to know that when you are aiming to be an economic superpower you do business on mutual basis like they have been doing with Zimbabwe and Africa.
This is what has really riled the West which sees Zimbabwe as a naughty child who refuses to listen to Big Brother.
If Zimbabwe had listened to the West, we would not have signed the mega deals with China and Russia.
We would not be talking of the US$1,5 billion Hwange expansion deal with Sino-Hydro.
Ambassador Lin made interesting points on the Western media’s onslaught against his country.
The threat posed by the Chinese menace has forced the West to resort to throwing brickbats at the Asian nation but that should never threaten the existing relations between China and Africa.
For Zimbabwe the friendship is too sweet to throw away.
“There are some sections of the Western media that are trying to tarnish China’s image by claiming that we want to siphon resources from Zimbabwe and Africa at large. They are former colonial masters of Africa and want to break the fabric between China and Africa,” said Ambassador Lin.
“We have been partners with Zimbabwe dating back to the days of the liberation struggle. We continue to support Zimbabwe.”
The West can froth at the mouth and lament all they care but theirs is provocative public posturing signifying nothing.
Let those with ears listen.