Abstract
This article discusses the undercurrents of US-China geoeconomic competition in Zimbabwe. It argues that while the rivalry between the United States and China has been visible at global level as demonstrated by the high profile tariff wars, South China Sea squabbles, and more recently, for the handling of the origins of the coronavirus aka Covid-19 pandemic, the US-China geoeconomic frictions have largely been of low intensity but high impact on Zimbabwe. The episodes of turfing between Beijing and Washington in that country are traceable to the 2000s when the United States and the other Western countries imposed targeted measures and sanctions on Harare following disagreements on land reform, human rights, rule of law, and electoral malpractices. The imposition of restrictive measures on Zimbabwe was accompanied by the withdrawal of the Euro-American investments, trade, finance, and development aid. In response, the Zimbabwe government invited China to invest in the lucrative sectors of the economy. This signalled the birth of the US-China geoeconomic competition in Zimbabwe. Since then, Beijing has consolidated its geostrategic interests in the country while the United States and the other Western countries have largely remained on the economic sidelines for the past two decades in Zimbabwe. This article therefore sets out to surface the US-China geopolitical and geoeconomic undercurrents thereby identifying the winners and losers as well as opportunities for the ailing economy of Zimbabwe.
Highlights
It is almost trite to say that the United States and China are currently involved in a combination of geopolitical and geoeconomic competition reminiscent of the Cold War era
It argues that while the rivalry between the United States and China has been visible at global level as demonstrated by the high profile tariff wars, South China Sea squabbles, and more recently, for the handling of the origins of the coronavirus aka Covid-19 pandemic, the US-China geoeconomic frictions have largely been of low intensity but high impact on Zimbabwe
The article concludes that while Zimbabwe is entrapped in the U.S-China geoeconomic frictions, government does not have to choose between Beijing and Washington but should maintain good relations with both powers
Summary
It is almost trite to say that the United States and China are currently involved in a combination of geopolitical and geoeconomic competition reminiscent of the Cold War era. As the third Newtonian’s law of motion would say, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”, the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe blamed the Euro-American powers, in particular the British for reneging on its Lancaster House promise for financing the land reform programme in the country He accused the Western countries for racism, neo-colonialism, and for harbouring regime change agendas against his government (Ndimande & Moyo, 2018). Perhaps one of the reasons is that there is very little left in Zimbabwe in terms of key investment opportunities after Harare has mortgaged most of the country’s key national resources to the Chinese investors, Chinese state-owned enterprises, and Chinese entrepreneurs (Moyo, 2019) Against this backdrop, this article sets out to surface the US-China geoeconomic undercurrents thereby defining the winners and losers in Zimbabwe’s troubled economy. The rest of the article is structured as follows: section 2 provides the global geopolitical context; section 3 examines the duo of geoeconomics and geopolitics in Africa; section 4 locates the entanglement of Zimbabwe in the midst of the US-China geoeconomic competition; section 5 defines the winners and losers in the US-China competition in Zimbabwe; Sections 6 and 7 gestures into the future and concludes the discussion respectively
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