[Editor’s Note: After nearly three decades of close cooperation, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is being forced to reconsider its support for Zimbabwe’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union –Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). ZANU-PF has orchestrated a brutal crackdown against supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) ahead of today’s presidential runoff election. Pro-ZANU-PF militias have killed scores of MDC-T leaders, beaten and displaced thousands of voters, and raided the MDC-T’s headquarters forcing its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, to pull out of the election and seek refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare. The United Nations Security Council, which includes China, unanimously approved a statement on June 23rd condemning the violence perpetrated by the regime, which is headed by strongman Robert Mugabe. It remains to be seen, however, if China’s support for the resolution represents a change in the CPC’s long-standing policy of support for ZANU-PF. Indeed, Beijing’s heretofore unannounced decision on whether or not to recognize the results of today’s uncontested runoff is expected to be the most conclusive indication to date of the state of the CPC-ZANU-PF relationship.]


June 10:

Speaking in Beijing before a group of 22 African journalists visiting China on an official press delegation, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry's deputy director general, Qin Gang, told visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretaries Thomas Christensen and James Swan, that the "people of Zimbabwe are capable of addressing their own questions and Zimbabwe can realize stability and development." The two-week Sino-African media training course is designed to promote information exchange and relations between China’s Xinhua News Agency and African media outlets. Gang’s comments were carried by the London-based Zimbabwe Guardian.


June 18:

Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joice Mujuru has met with a visiting delegation from the China National Machinery and Equipment Company (CNMEC) in Harare to hail co-operation between the two governments. "I would like to express our gratitude to the Chinese Government for being an all-weather friend from the days of our liberation struggle. The arrival of the equipment fits in well with our Government's Look East policy and vision of empowering our people as enunciated by President Mugabe," she said. CNMEC general manager, Mr. Yang Yinan said his company was committed to honor its contract with the Zimbabwe Government, which is part of a $20 million contract signed between the two governments in 2006, the official Zimbabwe Herald reports.


June 23:

The New York Times reports that China, Russia, and South Africa have succeeded in eliminating language in the aforementioned United Nations Security Council resolution condemning ZANU-PF violence that would have said that if free and fair elections could not be held Zimbabwe should rely on the results of the first round held in March. In that election, according to much-delayed official tallies, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition candidate, won by a 47 percent to 43 percent victory over ZANU-PF’s Robert Mugabe.


June 24:

For the first time China’s official Xinhua News Agency has reported directly on “the Zimbabwean ruling party's denial of its political opponent's right to join the election” and China’s decision to join the international community in “calling on the government to stop the violence, cease political intimidation, end the restrictions on the right of assembly and release the detained political leaders.” The acknowledgment came in the context of reporting on the UN Security Council’s statement condemning political violence in Zimbabwe. "China is concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe and hopes relevant sides would take into consideration the fundamental interest of the whole nation and the people," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in comments carried by the official Xinhua News Agency’s English language service.


June 25:

Beijing is reluctant to launch a full crackdown on Chinese firms conducting business in violation of UN Security Council sanctions, James Shinn, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs told the U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee. "The U.S. government has asked Beijing to halt commercial transactions by Chinese firms that violate UN sanctions, nonproliferation norms, and PRC law but our efforts are met with mixed results," Shinn said in comments carried by the Agence France-Presse. “We still observe Chinese firms and individuals transferring a wide variety of weapons-related materials and technologies to customers around the world - including to Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Sudan, and Syria.” In April, a ship belonging to a Chinese state-owned shipping firm was forced to abandon plans to deliver a shipment of arms to Zimbabwe amid fears they could be used to crack down on opposition supporters.

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