Enter 2015 Xi JinPing & Mugabe in 2015 during a state visit of the Chinese tot the Zimbabwen leader: “During his stay in Harare, Xi will hold talks with Mugabe, who is revered as an old friend of the Chinese people, and the two sides are expected to ink a series of cooperation deals covering such fields as infrastructure construction, investment, financing, culture and wildlife protection.”a caption
In the spring of 2005 once-prosperous Zimbabwe, which because of government mismanagement now boasts the world’s worst inflation, held a dismal election. As election day drew near in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, President Robert Mugabe’s goons detained hundreds of activists and opposition politicians. On election day, when thousands of opposition voters claimed that they had been physically prevented from going to the polls,Mugabe unsurprisingly won a smashing victory, then announced that he could remain in power until he was one hundred. (He was eighty-one at the time.) The US embassy in Zimbabwe announced that its election monitoring had uncovered “several patterns of irregularities that raised concerns about the freeness and fairness of the process.” After the election, Mugabe further consolidated his power, launching what the Zimbabwean government called “Operation Drive Out Trash.” As part of this campaign, the state evicted from their homes hundreds of thousands of urban poor, who tended to be opposition supporters, then forced the poor people to burn down their own houses. During the sham elections, no major international power would endorse the Zimbabwe vote—except China. Beijing didn’t just endorse the election; it may have actively helped Mugabe win. During the run-up to the election, China offered planeloads of T-shirts to Mugabe backers, sent the Zimbabwean government jamming devices to be used against independent radio stations, and provided Zimbabwe with riot-control gear. “Providing African countries with aid without any political strings within our ability is an important part of China’s policy toward Africa,”Hu Jintao confirmed in a speech. China’s assistance went along with Mugabe’s broader “Look East”policy of cultivating Beijing, under which the government helps students at Zimbabwe’s public universities learn Chinese, and Zimbabwean officials tout China’s economic model as a solution for their nation’s financial woes. Beijing responded by promoting a trade deal with impoverished Zimbabwe and sending economic advisers to Harare. China even hosted Mugabe for a state visit, where one of China’s leading universities honored the Zimbabwean leader, who had alienated his entire region, for his “brilliant contribution” to global relations. Mugabe appeared ecstatic over his good fortune. “The Chinese are our good friends, you see,” he told one interviewer, barely able to contain a smile.At a rally held on Zimbabwe’s independence day at a stadium in Harare,Mugabe declared, “We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the West.” Many in the crowd, forced to attend the rally, did not agree, but Mugabe paid them no mind, warning that state security forces would “descend mercilessly” on anyone who questioned him. As he spoke, Chinese fighter planes looped over the stadium, which had been built for Zimbabwe by China.”
the limping messenger 
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