President hails Chinese support

China has always taken in defending our sovereignty,” President Mugabe said.
He said relations between China and Zimbabwe date back to the days of the liberation struggle, hence Harare regarded Beijing as its first and greater ally in the international community.

On his part, Mr Zhou acknowledged President Mugabe’s great leadership, adding the Chinese Government respected him.
“With your leadership more co-operation can be made. Zimbabwe remains a trustworthy friend of China,” he said.

Mr Zhou emphasised the need for peace in the country while condemning external interference in Zimbabwe’s domestic affairs.
“The Chinese people will stand by Zimbabwe as they did in the past,” he said.

Mr Zhou said there were lessons to be learnt from political developments in North Africa.
The West has caused illegal regime change in countries such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt by sponsoring and participating in civil strife.

Mr Zhou said it was important for Zimbabwe and China to discuss the implications of such open aggression and strengthen their relations.
The delegation leaves the country on Friday, stopping over in South Africa before visiting Ghana.

Earlier on, the delegation had paid a courtesy call on Senate President Cde Edna Madzongwe.
Cde Madzongwe told the delegation that the high-level exchange visit between Zimbabwe and China was a manifestation of the strong relations between the two countries.
She said China’s contribution to international peace, stability and development was based on a firm ideology of equality, mutual respect of each other’s sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

“These progressive tenets of China’s foreign policy have thwarted hegemonistic tendencies from certain quarters in international relations,” she said.
“True to their principled stance, we will recall that on, 1 July 2008, China joined hands with Russia and South Africa to block the attempts by some countries to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe under

Chapter V11 of the UN Charter.

“The political shenanigans that meant to circumvent the Sadc and African Union involvement in the political impasse in Zimbabwe were frustrated through the principled stance taken by you (China, Russia and South Africa), our true friends.”
Cde Madzongwe said Zimbabwe also supported the one-China policy.

She also thanked China for donating computers and accessories to the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
The computers were donated in August this year during the visit of the Chinese People’s Political consultative Conference vice-chairman Mr Jia Qinglin.
Mr Zhou said China was interested in seeing relations between the two countries blossoming.

“Since the establishment of relations between the two countries, bilateral relations have been continuing and all these kind of exchanges and co-operation have achieved remarkable results,” he said.

“In our bilateral relationship, we have been respecting each other. We value high level exchanges and since the beginning of this year, we have witnessed exchanges and such kind of high level exchanges are important in expanding our relationship.”
Mr Zhou said it was important for the two countries to reciprocate each other’s assistance.

He said there was need for the two’s parliaments to have more exchanges.
Mr Zhou, who is in Africa for the first time, said there was need for African countries to work with China.
He donated 22 laptops, 20 printers, 10 scanners and five LCD television sets to the Senate.