ZimNow News Desk
ZANU PF Secretary for Information and Publicity Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa has called for Southern Africa to engage China as a bloc, saying the region must confront shared economic problems that are fuelling instability, migration pressure and youth despair.
Speaking in Harare during a roundtable hosted by the Chinese Embassy to mark the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Mutsvangwa said countries in the region should not approach China only as individual states, but should use the relationship to address common structural challenges affecting Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and neighbouring economies.
His remarks come as South Africa faces renewed anti-migrant pressure, with Zimbabweans among foreign nationals affected by threats, protests and forced returns.
Mutsvangwa said the crisis in South Africa could not be solved by targeting foreigners, but by addressing the underlying economic problems driving migration and social tension across the region.
He said Southern Africa needed capital inflows, better management of investment, technology transfer, industrialisation and job creation to give young people hope.
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The former Zimbabwean ambassador to China said the region should draw practical lessons from China’s development experience, including long-term planning, industrial policy, poverty reduction and the use of finance to support production.
He cited Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector as an example of how Chinese financing had helped revive a productive industry, saying such cooperation should be expanded into broader regional development.
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said the CPC’s governance experience was anchored in seeking truth from facts, prioritising people’s wellbeing, maintaining strategic foresight, defending sovereignty and continuously strengthening internal discipline.
He said China does not export its development model or attach political conditions to cooperation, but supports Zimbabwe in pursuing a path suited to its own national conditions.
Other participants said Zimbabwe and the region could learn from China’s experience in poverty alleviation, industrialisation, modernisation and grassroots development while crafting solutions rooted in local realities.
The roundtable discussed China-Zimbabwe relations, party-to-party cooperation, governance training, economic transformation and the role of political organisation in development.
Ambassador Zhou said China-Zimbabwe ties stretch back more than six decades to the liberation struggle and continue through economic cooperation, training and exchanges between ZANU PF and the CPC.
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