AS Chinese President Xi Jinping’s double deck Boeing 747-400 ER landed at the Harare International Airport on Tuesday morning, there was a profound sense the nation had finally arrived; the culmination of the country’s Look East Policy.
It was a moment of the rebirth of the Zimbabwean economy; a moment of vindication of President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF’s rule and economic policies.
“A leader of President Xi’s magnitude does not just come for the sake of putting up a show,” one senior Government official told The Patriot at the airport.
There was a mood of expectation at the Harare International Airport.
The glamour was a mixture of Zimbabwean and Chinese tradition.
The smile on President Xi and his wife Madame Peng Liyuan when the doors of the gigantic Air China presidential plane were opened at 10:21 am and the waving to the appreciating thousands who thronged the airport to welcome the leader of the second biggest economy in the world were enough evidence of the solid ties between the two nations.
His embrace of President Robert Mugabe who led the thousands who included Vice-Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, Service Chiefs and senior Government officials in welcoming him, dealt a stinging blow to those who had wanted to diminish the country’s Look East Policy.
Who will forget that cartoon in a daily that depicted President Mugabe with trolleys full of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) soon after his 13th State Visit to Beijing in August last year?
On Tuesday it was the CNN downplaying the significance and impact of this historic visit, claiming President Xi was making a ‘stop-over’ in Harare.
The objective was obviously to gloss over President Mugabe and ZANU PF successes.
It is woven around presenting the Look East Policy as a monumental failure.
The Chinese are not supposed to be our economic partners because in their eyes of the West, they should decide who we work with.
Herein lies the significance of Tuesday’s visit, its impact on the economy battered by the Western-imposed illegal economic sanctions.
Tuesday December 1 2015 was about translating the diplomatic ties between Harare and Beijing into the economic transformation of Zimbabwe.
And in-between that purported ‘stop-over’ was the inspection of a guard of honour mounted by the full Presidential Guard Brigade and a 21-gun salute fired from five canons, a rare and befitting honour to a special guest.
At the Harare International Airport, British Ambassador Catriona Laing was there too, looking a bit lost.
She must have been wondering whether anyone would listen to her call to return to the Commonwealth by 2018.
Zimbabwe has moved on.
That ‘stop-over’ was in fact a two-day state visit that culminated in the signing of 12 landmark economic deals that will forever change the fortunes of this country.
It was at State House that the real deal was sealed.
There, the icing on the 12 deals that impeccable sources told this paper would be implemented as early as January next year was put on the cake.
In his address to the gathering that included diplomats from across the globe, President Xi poured scorn on the malicious claims that he had made a stop-over in Harare.
The visit, which was the only one on a bilateral level during his second visit to Africa President Xi said, was a fulfilment of the promise he made to President Mugabe last year.
“I am fulfilling that promise,” said President Xi.
“I was overwhelmed by the welcome by President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe at the airport.
“President Mugabe is a seasoned statesman and a founding father of Africa who is respected across the continent.
“In China, we also have the same people whom we hold in high regard.”
On his part, President Mugabe described China as a “true and dear friend of (the) people of Zimbabwe.”
He mocked those who chided Zimbabwe in 2000 for adopting the Look East Policy saying they too were now following the same path.
“For us, there was never any doubt as to the rightness of that policy,” said President Mugabe.
“When we needed support in fighting to liberate ourselves from colonial oppression, we looked East and China came to our aid.
“It is therefore natural, Mr President, that we continue to strengthen our political and economic relations with those who have always stood with us, even in our darkest hour.”
As President Xi and his delegation left Harare for South Africa, it was mission fulfilled, leaving behind a Zimbabwe with a new breath and a Zimbabwe that will never be the same again.
He came, he saw and he conquered.