China bails on Mugabe

Times:

China has bowed to economic reality and political expediency by calling a halt to aid to Zimbabwe.

One of the few remaining friends to President Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s embattled leader, China has been quietly allowing the relationship to cool over the past few months. But Li Guijin, China’s special envoy for Africa, confirmed yesterday that Beijing had halted development aid. “China’s assistance is mainly humanitarian. In terms of development assistance, we have some difficulties,” he said.

“China in the past provided substantial development assistance but owing to the dramatic currency revaluations and rapid deterioration of economic conditions, the economic outcomes of these projects have not been so good.”

The decision deals a heavy blow to a country where unemployment is 80 per cent, inflation hit 7,600 per cent in July and the value of the Zimbabwean dollar on the black market recently fell to 500,000 to the pound.

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As recently as April Jia Qinglin, a member of China’s all-powerful Politburo standing committee, promised to build two primary schools, a hospital and an agriculture training centre. And he reiterated plans to renovate the National Sports Stadium, that was built by China in the 1980s. But the only definite deal was a swap of farm machinery for tobacco. The future of those projects is now in doubt.

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It is doubtful Zimbabwe could deliver on its side of the deal. Farmers don't have the money for seed or fuel for planting. The screws continue to tighten on the despot in charge, but I suspect he will continue to hang on for several months. There appears to be no momentum at this time beyond passive aggressive responses to his misrule.