AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede China’s international resource push began in earnest in 1999, when it’s Going Global Strategy liberalized investment policies and provided financial incentives to encourage overseas investments and contracts. Such a strategy was necessitated by a depletion of its own domestic resources. This scenario then forced China to create partnerships with African countries, a development that has created suspicion across the African continent as most people assume that it is a new form of neo-colonialism. The turn of the millennium saw a drastic change in Zimbabwe’s foreign policy. The disagreement between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU) in 2003 led to capital flight and economic depression and this resulted in Zimbabwe being isolated from the EU in the form of targeted sanctions. With no viable source for continued support, the country retraced its historical roots and deepened relations with China and this culminated into Zimbabwe adopting a look East policy. The