Greetings, fellow Zims, Rhodies, and Shamwaris,
In today’s edition (8th September 2024) of Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, an article titled “Xi Has a New Plan to Rule Africa” caught my attention.
The opening paragraphs read:
“President Xi Jinping has committed Aus$75 billion to woo African nations into his Global South alliance to challenge the United States and the West. At his summit that ended in Beijing yesterday, he announced new funding for African nations following backlash against his previous Belt and Road initiative loans. African leaders also signed up for a series of soft power initiatives, from journalism training to joint military exercises, to promote China’s political and economic model as an alternative to democracy.”
For those of us who have followed developments in Zimbabwe over the past fifty years, this is hardly surprising. China’s interest in Zimbabwe has always been driven by self-interest rather than genuine concern for Zimbabwe’s citizens.
In the 1970s and 1980s, China, led first by Mao Zedong and then by Deng Xiaoping, shaped its strategic ambitions in southern Africa through long-term planning. At that time, China was emerging as a global power, focusing on leveraging its economic influence to shape the internal policies of selected southern African countries, including Zimbabwe. Through strategic trade and economic engagements, China sought to establish a foothold and influence domestic affairs in various African nations. This included providing credit facilities to financially overextended African nations, ensuring their economic dependence on China.
In contrast, Russia, a Cold War superpower, was deeply involved in espionage and sabotage against the West. In southern Africa, Russia’s approach was more focused on direct military support to liberation movements, assuming that military might would prevail against the conventional armies of the colonising nations. However, it struggled to adapt its classical warfare tactics to the guerrilla warfare strategies employed by these liberation movements.
Interestingly, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, China played a significant role in advising ZANU/ZANLA to adopt Maoist principles. They encouraged the prioritisation of indoctrinating local rural populations before engaging militarily with the Rhodesian Security Forces. This was part of China’s broader strategy to influence revolutionary movements across Africa during that time.
Before 1980, Rhodesia had aligned itself with Western powers, particularly the UK and the United States. However, post-independence, under Mugabe's leadership, Zimbabwe rapidly shifted its alignment towards the Eastern bloc. This shift helps to explain the significant changes in Zimbabwe’s economic, political, and social trajectory over the past 20 to 30 years.
One wonders what global changes the next 50 years may bring. Predicting this from a Western perspective is practically impossible. However, from an Eastern perspective, it may be easier. This is because, while the West seems to be tossed thither and hither by the vagaries of public opinion, China’s approach seems more deliberate and long-sighted.
In fact, reflecting on this, I am reminded of a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Perhaps it is time for our Western leaders to figure out where we are going!
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