President Xi of China and HH of Zambia…finally meet and shake hands to diplomacy

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President Xi of China and HH of Zambia…finally meet and shake hands to diplomacy

Amb. Anthony Mukwita-15.09.23

“Zambia abides by the ´one-China principle´, highly appreciates the guiding concepts and principles of Chinese-style modernisation, and hopes to learn from China’s development experience,” President Hichilema.

In Beijing, the capital of the People´s Republic of China, President Xi finally shook hands with President Hichilema of Zambia outside the Great Hall ending standoff that has been in place since the Zambian leader assumed office in August 2021 after a general election.

This is a meeting many analysts domestic and international have been anticipating for more than 24 months due to a combination of factors ranging from debt to just normal geopolitics and diplomacy, mostly of ´east´ vs ´west´ under the changing ´new world order´ Zambia is a part of.
In the absence of a steady flow of news updates from Beijing, international relations pundits and authors like me turn to international media such as Reuters and CGTNtv for highlights on this historic event.

This perhaps President Hichilema´s most important international engagement since he assumed office as head of state.

The major take-aways I have captured through scouring international media present on the ground is as follows:
• President Xi ´supports and respects´ Zambia´s desire to ´safeguard´ its national sovereignty, security, and development interests. This ostensibly means no interference of any form in Zambian internal affairs as a partner.
• An export to China door from Zambia will be encouraged or even escalated for Africa´s second largest producer of copper.
• Xinhua also reports that Zambian and China have now upgraded their ties to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.”
• President Xi committed to work with Zambia to ´expand´ cooperations covering infrastructure, agriculture, mining, and clean energy.

THE DEBT ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

I don’t as an analyst sitting in Lusaka know whether debt restructuring was discussed or not, but it is something Zambia needs like a flower needs rain from China whom it owes about $6billion in infrastructure debt over the years, the largest single creditor.

International news reports state that President Hichilema thanked President Xi for helping Africa become a new bloc member of the G20 at the recent historic New Delhi meeting according to Xinhua.

Whether Zambia will sign the crucial debt agreement with China is not known thus far.
It was not immediately known whether China and Zambia signed any debt agreements its sure-fire fact that China has a huge business stake in Zambia valued at over $11 billion ranging from mining to infrastructure it’s been growing since 1964 and now through the Belt and Road Initiative comprehensively discussed in my new book ´China in Africa the Zambia story´.

China buys a fifth of Zambian exports, especially copper it needs for construction expansion and the growing electric vehicle industry.

PRESIDENT HICHILEMA EMBRACES ONE-CHINA POLICY

Many foreign relations pundits were uncertain what position President Hichilema would take on behalf of Zambia regarding the Asian giants position on Taiwan, a country China regards as a break away renegade province but alas that came to pass, and the world had a sigh of relief as the Zambian leader embraced China at the expense of Taiwan.

“Zambia abides by the ´one-China principle´, highly appreciates the guiding concepts and principles of Chinese-style modernisation, and hopes to learn from China’s development experience,” President Hichilema said at the meeting with Xi according to Reuters.

President Hichilema is expected to return to Zambia with his entourage by Saturday, the nation waits with abated breath to hear the whole Chinese story that took so long to happen.

It is also unclear what the US and allies makes of the engagement of Zambia China at such a high level after discouraging Zambia to embrace Beijing but this is a developing geopolitical story, one can only guess.

Amb. Anthony Mukwita is an international relations analyst and author of the new book ´China in Africa the Zambia story. ´

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