An Assessment Of The Chinese Geopolitical Interests In Africa: A Case Of Zimbabwe-China Bilateral Engagements From 2003-2015

Abstract

The China-Africa relationship has been showing its frailties as build on capitalist matrices in

nature, with China being a capitalistic sadist and Africa a masochist. Unlike the West which uses

philanthropy a guise for their misanthropy, China has an economically palatable approach

called investment, which bring more complication to the African polyandry dilemma (state of

being caught in between the Capitalist giants and pseudo communist giants). The

Zimbabwe-China engagement presents a dynamic opportunity to studying Chinese geopolitical

interests in Africa; for Zimbabwe had to divorce the ever-controlling Western racist husband and

marry the new scheming, calculating Eastern husband (China). One notices that despite the

Zimbabwean government mongering the gospel of win-win situation with China, a closer

scrutiny show otherwise, with China appearing to be benefiting enormously in Zimbabwe while

the economically bed-ridden Zimbabwe gets crumbs. The Western principle of attempting to

enforce human rights and the rule of law came to clash with the Chinese principle of

non-intervention in the domestic affairs of its partners. The west has always said that it is willing

to re-engage Zimbabwe but on the condition that it adopts certain reforms. The Zimbabwean

government has attempted to enforce these reforms however failed as for example the 2015 civil

service rationalisation was done as stipulated by the IMF and the WB; however this failed to

scoop favours for the country from the West. China remains watching silently and has not been

forth coming in giving financial aid to the Zimbabwean government in its attempt to repay the

debts owed to the WB and IMF. Zimbabwe becomes an epitome of the clash of ‘capitalisms’ in

Africa.