Agent 22 was an invited guest at last month's 86th birthday party for Zimbabwean dictator Comrade Bob Mugabe. For the first time ever, the celebration was held at a foreign embassy in Harare. Guess whose! Yes, it was the Chinese embassy. Right the first time.
Agent 22 was impressed, as were the assembled members of Zimbabwe's Politburo (they actually call it that) to hear the Chinese ambassador sing the national anthem in excellent chiShona. One official was heard to ask an American journalist, "Can your man do that?"
The whole scene was a perfect example of Chinese diplomacy in action, and how the Chinese are nurturing their business and political interests in resource-rich Africa. As he sliced the birthday cake, "Bob's Your Uncle" effused, "We treasure this friendship. It's not really the relations that count, but the love, alliance and understanding."
Ah yes...and the money. It had been rumored that China was losing its patience with the virtually bankrupt Mugabe regime's failure to pay even the interest on the soft-as-brie loans given to them by the Chinese. But, perhaps as a birthday present, China agreed to a three-year rescheduling of a US$55 million debt owed by Ziscosteel, Zimbabwe's largest steel-maker.
As discussed in China Safari, from which I took several excerpts earlier this month, China's winning approach combines easy loans, cheap consumer goods (their merchandise is called "zhing-zhong" in Zimbabwe), and uncritical political support at world talking shops like the United Nations. Plus guns and birthday cakes for all who pledge allegiance to "one China" and its Communist dictatorship.
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