Letter from America

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Letter from America

Economic growth without democracy

‘China has become Mugabe’s handmaiden in the repression of Zimbabweans’

BY STANFORD MUKASA

WASHINGTON - China’s “economic growth without democracy” policy is spoiling African dictators like Mugabe.
The announcement by President Hu Jintao that China will double its aid to Africa to the tune of US$5 billion over the next three years will have some implications on efforts by Zimbabwean civil society and church leadership to negotiate with Mugabe and Zanu (PF) a return to democracy and the rule of law.
The excessive generosity with which China has assisted Mugabe and other dictators of the world makes Mugabe and Zanu (PF) scoff at any appeals for human rights or democracy.
Against this background, the document by a section of Zimbabwean church leaders and which was handed to Mugabe last week will probably carry little, if any, weight with Mugabe and Zanu (PF) who feel their Look East policy will soon bear fruit.
China’s policy of economic progress without democracy has historically been a model and a source of great inspiration for dictators in Africa. Virtually all appeals to the Chinese by the international community to bring pressure to bear on Mugabe have been ignored.
Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhang Xianyi, recently spelt out the principles governing Chinese policy towards Zimbabwe, namely, what he called equality, mutual benefit, solidarity and common development.
The ambassador said China’s bilateral trade with Zimbabwe would increase by 11.5 percent to US$500 million in 2008. In 2005 the figure was US$283 million.
Overall, China’s trade with Africa in the past 10 years increased 10 times to about $40 billion last year.
China has also announced it will forgive debts owed to it by the poorest African countries. President HU also announced other measures by China to boost trade with Africa.
At a recent meeting of the American Enterprise Institute it was noted that:
• More exports from Africa to China will receive tariff-free status.
• China will train 15,000 African professionals.
• China will build schools, hospitals and anti malaria clinics.
• China will send experts and youth volunteers to Africa.
• China will double the number of scholarships to African students to 4,000 by 2009.
China is an emerging world economic power and the second largest consumer of energy and petroleum products. To meet internal demand China has invested heavily in oil resources in Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, and Gabon as well as in copper purchases mainly in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Zimbabwe China is eyeing the country’s untapped platinum resources reported to be the second largest in the world. Zimbabwe has also other mineral resources like uranium, gold, silver and copper that China would like to tap into.
In its aggressive quest for increased trade China has totally ignored the human rights implications of its economic growth without democracy policy.
This may well explain why Mugabe is dragging his feet on any pressures to negotiate a resolution of the country’s crisis of governance with the opposition and civil society.
Mugabe’s survival can be attributed to number factors including a strong military and generous looting of the national resources to reward his cronies, notably top party and government officials as well as the army. But the China factor is increasingly becoming a significant lifeline for the aging dictator.
According to reports China has extended generous financial and other forms of assistance to Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in exchange for the wholesale mortgaging of national resources to China. Some people are calling this Look East policy a new colonialism from China, and China has become Mugabe’s handmaiden in the repression of Zimbabweans.
The opposition movement and civil society leadership must come to grips with the fact that Mugabe has in China a real and substantive promise of support – whether or not China will actually deliver on all promises made to Mugabe. Strategies for confronting Mugabe must factor this reality.