Robert Mugabe was set to leave China yesterday without the unconditional support he had sought from Beijing to keep Zimbabwe’s struggling economy afloat, a sign China is not willing to commit cash blindly, even to its closest allies in Africa.
The 90-year-old president has been one of Beijing’s staunchest allies in Africa, dating from his days as a Maoist revolutionary fighting to overturn minority rule by whites. He was met with full honours in Beijing on Monday by Chinese President Xi Jinping, just weeks after US President Barack Obama refused to include him in an Africa summit in Washington.
In recent years perceptions have grown in the west that China builds ties and reaps economic rewards in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world through no-strings-attached deals. But Beijing’s relatively hard-nosed reception of Mr Mugabe shows that its open-wallet policy has limits.