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.