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China supports Zim's land reform
03/11/2004 02:05 - (SA)
Harare - A Chinese envoy began a visit to Zimbabwe on Tuesday by voicing support for President Robert Mugabe's land-reform programme and saying western governments should not meddle in it.
Wu Bangguo, chair of the standing committee of the National People's Congress of China said: "We are opposed to the interference of foreign countries in this land issue.
"The Chinese government supports and appreciates the reasons for the land issue."
Wu was quoted by the New Ziana state news agency as saying this to Zimbabwe's parliament speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on the first day of his visit.
Relations between Zimbabwe and several western countries, particularly Britain, have soured in recent years over its land reforms.
'Commercial farmers were dispossessed'
Close to 4 000 white large-scale commercial farmers were dispossessed of their land during often-violent land invasions in 2000.
The forced seizure of the commercial farms wreaked havoc in the agriculture sector and sent the economy into a tailspin in Zimbabwe, once southern Africa's breadbasket.
Mugabe's government said land reform was designed to correct colonial imbalances in which about 4 500 whites owned about 30% of the country's farmland or 70% of all prime farmland.
Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said during his visit to Zimbabwe that Mugabe did not deserve to be "ostracised" or "demonised" by anyone for his land reforms.
Zimbabwe has turned to the East for friends and new markets, in particular to boost its tourism industry.
Several Chinese trade delegations have visited the country this year.
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