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Herald Correspondent

Each day, local “independent” media in Zimbabwe and Western media outlets are running stories about the alleged growing influence of Chinese companies, especially in the natural resource sectors such as mining and the environment.

The script is familiar: Chinese companies are portrayed as having come in a wave and are overrunning the countryside where they extract riches under the soil such as gold and granite, leaving communities mourning, scarred and poor.

In another case at the weekend, The Guardian newspaper in Britain wilfully published a fictionalised story of families, including an alleged frail 82-year-old who was too scared for his life, that had not been compensated following displacement for mining activities.

The narrative is growing and the media is literally digging up wherever Chinese companies are invested in Zimbabwe to find faults ranging from alleged low pay and exploitation, beatings, land degradation to siphoning money from the country.

Actually, the other side of the story is Jinding, the Chinese mining company accused groundlessly by The Guardian, has been fully licensed and done a lot to protect the environment in the mining area, such as planting trees and never using explosives.

It has good relations with the community.

Workers are well-paid and only three families are involved in relocation and the relevant families including the 82-year-old man’s family are satisfied with proper compensation.

“All are welcome to visit our clean and tidy mining area where every mining activity is carried out under supervision of the environmental authorities”, Jinding said.

The question on the minds of observers is, why this frenzy against Chinese companies now?

Several reasons underpin this development, not least revelations last September that the US Embassy in Harare was paying journalists to write negative stories about Chinese enterprises in the natural resource sector across the country.

Look East policy bites West

Western countries such as Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and others in the European Union imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe at the turn of the millennium in response to the land reform programme.

The sanctions were meant to hurt the economy and affected several sectors through disinvestment and closure of markets for Zimbabwean goods.

The sanctions were designed to collapse the economy and cause untold suffering to local populace, with the intention of causing mass uprising against the Government of Zimbabwe.

Faced with this hostile policy, Zimbabwe enunciated the “Look East Policy”, that shifted dependence on the West to a new partnership with countries such as China and Russia.

Consequently, the relationship with China, the world’s second largest economy, flourished.

Over the years, Chinese companies have come to do business in Zimbabwe, across various sectors.

The investments have even accelerated in recent years, under President Mnangagwa, who has proclaimed that “Zimbabwe Is Open for Business”.

However, Western countries, with their hostile stance on Zimbabwe and the bigoted refusal to remove sanctions on Zimbabwe despite calls by the international community, have lost out.

They cannot have their cake and eat it! Out of sheer jealousy, envy and pique, Western countries have begun a spirited campaign against Chinese investments in Zimbabwe using a phalanx of corrupt media, paid activists and civil society organisations.

It is correctly observed that the intention of these activities is to seek to cause local people to fight Chinese investments in the country and within localities of their operations.

Further, there is growing politicisation of the matter with moves to make China “an electoral issue” in 2023, when Zimbabwe goes to the polls.

Whitewashing Western evil exploitation

Zimbabwe is a young country that won its Independence in 1980, after more than a century of British colonialism.

During the colonial years, British, European and American countries dominated the economy and set up huge profitable enterprises in agriculture and mining on the back of massive exploitation of natural resources and the labour of black indigenous people.

Some of these companies included multinational entities such as Anglo American, De Beers, Rio Tinto, and so on, who made huge profits for their country and left very little for local economy, much less locals who were at the bottom of the feeding chain.

Ironically, the exploitation and transfer of wealth occurred for almost two decades into independent Zimbabwe, as the country managed to win political freedom, but not much by way of economic freedom.

It was only at the turn of the century that things changed.

However, Western countries sponsoring propaganda against China today in local media, the case of granite mining in Mutoko, which is subject of recent coverage in the media of alleged Chinese exploitation is the latest evidence, and corrupting poor journalists want the world to forget about their role in exploiting Zimbabwe, which they did for over a century and would happily do so again.

It is called whitewashing history.

Attempts at projecting China as the “new coloniser” are just futile attempts at whitewashing history of Western exploitation, racism and plunder, and trying to worm their way back into Zimbabwe to enjoy her natural resources.

China stood side-by-side with Zimbabwean people to fight and defeat Western imperialism that today masquerades as the saviour of the people and paragons of virtue.

No one should be fooled!

The challenge, for now, is for the Government of Zimbabwe to regulate and account for the natural resources sector through strict governance that ensures respect for the law and benefits for the people of Zimbabwe.

China is not averse to this.

In fact, recently when President Mnangagwa asserted that mining companies in Mutoko should not develop business without consulting locals, it resonated with what China stands for.

It is not in the interests of China to grow bad relations with communities and the friendly people of Zimbabwe because its approach is based on friendship and mutual respect.

Further, China does not condone any acts of criminality, dishonesty or misconduct by any company or individual in Zimbabwe and is on record as urging authorities to punish offenders in terms of the law.

Smearing China fair game?

A conclusion

For Western mainstream media and Western-sponsored Zimbabwean media, it is fair game to lie, smear and defame China and paint it as the “new coloniser”.

No one is held accountable for the lies and fabrications generated to tarnish the reputation of Chinese companies, State and its relationship with the Government and people of Zimbabwe.

The intention is to drive a wedge between China and Zimbabwe and separate them through lack of confidence and trust in each other, despite being “all weather friends”.

The plot is thickening each day. Each day that passes sees yet another story in hostile media contrived to defame China and its legitimate activities in Zimbabwe.

Unfortunately, this makes Zimbabwe the victim again.

Western countries want China out of Zimbabwe and its lucrative natural resource sector so that they can exploit the profitable resources themselves.

The West wants resources to enrich itself so that they prevent China from catching up among the world’s wealthiest. Ironically, the West wants Zimbabwe to separate from the very ally that helped it achieve Independence in 1980.

If allowing the West to get its way in the game of smearing China, Zimbabwe will once again fall into a development trap.