China: Africa’s all weather partner

West has no disempowering strings attached to it. It is purely a gift fully financed and constructed by China for Africa.
Glaringly, it has no debilitating subtle conditionalities designed to enslave its intended beneficiaries or surreptitiously entrap them into a vicious circle of unsustainable debts. It is not meant to be a diabolical springboard to meddle into internal matters of the recipient. Neither is it an instrument of hegemonic expansion but sheer benevolence meant to prop up Africa.

Goodwill, mutual respect and the accompanying win-win aspect has become hallmarks of China’s partnership with Africa. This introduces a completely new paradigm and a draught of fresh air to African countries that have been grappling with the effrontery big brother tactics from the United States and its European acolytes.
It is undeniable that while China is extending its genuine philanthropic hand to Africa, the West is busy extending their brazen iron fisted imperial hand that continues to foment a myriad of destabilising activities in the continent. Of note, the West among other inauspicious incursions into Africa has recently hijacked popular uprisings in Libya to militarily topple Muammar Gaddafi.

The imperial mission left the North African country inexorably ravaged by divisive internal squabbles and instability that were non-existent during the prolonged rule of the lynched Gaddafi. It is not a surprise therefore that while China was donating the US$200 million complex to Africa; America was frantically busy channelling equal amounts to NGOs and other subversive forces to spearhead destabilisation in the continent.

In Zimbabwe, the Chinese are spearheading massive investments in the exploitation of diamonds in Chiadzwa while the US and its coterie of European allies are forcefully trying to stifle trade in these gems.
Among other investments, the Chinese have invested US$300 million in Anjin Investments, a joint venture between the Chinese and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. The investment is huge and has inadvertently solicited positive comments from renowned diamond analysts like the Israeli Chaim Evan-Zohar who tipped it to be the largest diamond operation in Africa. Comparably, the US continues to throw spanners in the work of other Chiadzwa based mining entities.

Recently it placed Marange Resources and Mbada Diamonds under its illegal sanctions regime for some nebulous and unsubstantiated reasons.
In the same interest, it has unashamedly deployed its subservient imperial organisations such as the Rappaport Group, De Beers and the Centre for Research and Development to denigrate and concomitantly block the trade in Chiadzwa gems. Together with the imperial media, these organisations have gone all out to falsely disparage the gems mined in Chiadzwa in a bid to dissuade international buyers from dealing in these gems.

Through its Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US has made it extremely difficult for the sanctioned Zimbabwean diamond companies to freely complete their diamond transactions on the world market. Any dealings involving huge transactions in US dollars are readily detected and frozen through OFAC. This is typically how the US and its European bedfellows treat the rest of

Africans. Unlike the Chinese partnership that is couched in an idyllic win-win situation, the West’s engagements with Africa are incontrovertibly guided by a win-lose matrix skewed in favour of the imperialists.
Similarly, while the Chinese are readily prepared to transfer technology to Africa, the Westerners are more interested in siphoning raw minerals from the continent. Some Western mining companies operating in

Africa since colonial times have dismally failed to establish any mineral processing centre but continue to ship out unprocessed minerals to various imperial destinations. As a result, it is disheartening to notice that the resource rich Africans remain the net importers of highly priced processed commodities harnessed from the bowels of their countries. It is saddening that Nigeria, due to the lack of refining facilities, remains a net importer of refined fuel yet it is the largest oil producer in Africa.

However, it is rather comforting that within the short period of time it has ventured into Africa, China has shown an inimitable penchant to share technology and had managed to set up some mineral processing facilities. In Chiadzwa, Chinese companies have established state of the art diamond cutting and polishing centres to add value to the rough diamonds.

Despite vain attempts by the West and its agile media to spiritedly taint China’s dealings with Africa, it is unambiguously clear that the Asian country has proven itself to be a preferable and non-intrusive partner for Africa. Such a submission lends credence to increased calls for countries like Zimbabwe to ditch the emasculating US dollar in preference of the Chinese Yuan so as to boost our ever growing mutual partnership.