[BRIEF NOTE] The Failure of Zimbabwe's Look East Policies

[rfmcdonald]

IWPR reports that Robert Mugabe's attempts to attract Asian, particularly Chinese, investment and trade to compensate for Zimbabwe's sanctions-induced isolation from Western trading partners has failed. The Chinese, it turns out, are not so much interested in propping up a distant client-state as they are in snatching up as many bargains as possible in Zimbabwe's wrecked economy. As things stand, the West and Zimbabwe's African neighbours remain Zimbabwe's major trading partners, as reported by the Zimbabwe Independent on the 23rd of this month; China hardly regsters.