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Tichaona Zindoga Acting Editor
China yesterday celebrated the 70th anniversary of its founding, counting many achievements — extraordinary achievements — that have made the country a global powerhouse.

It has achieved an “economic miracle” that has seen it achieve a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$13.6 trillion, a 450 times increase from US$30 billion in 1949.

China is now the world’s second largest economy. Its science and technology have grown.

It has made remarkable progress in improving its people’s livelihoods, lifting citizens out of poverty.

Under its targeted elimination of poverty programme, China has lifted over a billion people out of penury in the last 40 years and will next year eradicate poverty which affects 10 million of a population of 1.4 billion people.

“China is closer than ever to realising the Chinese dream and goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” said Ambassador Guo Shaochun at a reception to mark the birth of the republic yesterday.

Remarkably, somewhere within the 70-year tapestry of history, China did a unique thing for Zimbabwe.

The year was 2008.

Zimbabwe was under attack from Britain, the United States of America and other Western countries at the United Nations Security Council as the former sought the permission of the world body to impose sanctions on the country.

China stood by Zimbabwe. And this was a high point in global geopolitics.

On July 11. 2008, the UN Security Council failed to pass a resolution that would have imposed sanctions against Zimbabwean as China and Russia used their veto powers to block the development, angering Western countries who had sought to use the sanctions – under the dubious Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, to invade Zimbabwe.

“…China vetoed the proposed resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe at the UN Security Council in 2008, which is the first and only time that China has exercised its veto at the Security Council for an African country,” Ambassador Guo related yesterday.

The reflection comes at a time Zimbabwe and its allies are pushing for the removal of sanctions against the country.

Zimbabwe and China have done more, before and after July 2008: from the latter supporting Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, Zimbabwe’s support for “One-China” principle, to strengthening of bilateral relations and cooperation under Presidents Mnangagwa and Xi Jinping.

Next year, the two countries mark 40 years of diplomatic relations.