China is Zim's 'best friend'
2007-07-20 20:49
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Special Report
Another MDC Member of Parliament has been jailed in Zimbabwe in what the former opposition party says is part of a conspiracy by President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
Zimbabwe's coalition government still has many challenges to face.
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has pronounced China his country's top co-operation partner, Harare's Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Its website quoted him as saying: "Currently, we are being driven by our Look East policy and our first country for co-operation is China."
Mugabe was addressing a delegation from the Communist Party of China at a meeting in Harare on Thursday.
He said relations between the two countries dated back to the struggle for independence, which Beijing backed to the hilt.
"Now that we are independent and sovereign, we have pursued together ways of how we can transform our socio-economic systems for the benefit of our people."
The two countries had done this realising that there were areas where they must observe their oneness especially on the international forum.
Zimbabwe and China had always been criticised by Western countries at international forums on false grounds that they did not uphold human rights.
But the United Nations had always found nothing wrong with the human rights records of China and Zimbabwe, Mugabe said.
- SAPA