China's recent history mirrored in southern Africa

Being a lover of history, I have taken the opportunity to do a fair amount research into China's ancient and recent past. And what I find particularly interesting is that those in power around the world rarely take lessons from the past. And a glaring example of this is the southern African country of Zimbabwe.

As most are probably aware, the Communist Party of China swept into power in 1949 on a wave of support from the populace who wanted change, particularly the repressed peasants. But under the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong ruled China until his death in 1976, taking this country through a complete term of chaos, from the economic disaster of the Great Leap Forward to the political terrorization of the Cultural Revolution, all the while systematically isolating China from the rest of the world until just before the end of his life. It was only after the Chairman shuffled off the mortal coil that China finally started, through Deng Xiaoping, to reform itself and open itself up to outside ideas. Mao's time in power, though fostered under the best of intentions (if you believe that he was truly trying to help out the repressed), systematically put China some 30 to 40 years behind the rest of the industrialized world. And during this time, his acolytes heaped praise on him and - for the exception of a select few - wouldn't dare to challenge his authority or half-baked economic ideals. Not exactly the best history to model one's country around. But yet, the exact same scenario is playing out in Zimbabwe.

Fast forward, if you will, from Mao's death in 1976 to 1980, when the former British protectorate of Rhodesia gained its full independence and flung into power one Robert Mugabe. Lauded by international leaders as a hero to the people of Zimbabwe (Much like Mao was to many when he first came to power), Mr. Mugabe's ZANU party, based on a Marxist-Leninist philosophy, sought to help out the poor people of Zimbabwe through land redistribution, along the exact same line as the CPC in the early 1950's. And, not surprisingly, this concept has turned Zimbabwe from one of the most productive and prosperous countries in Africa into one of the poorest. All the while, Mr. Mugabe continues to hold onto power and has isolated himself from the Western world thanks to his policies. And still, though the Zimbabwe of today appears to be the mirror image of China under Mao Zedong, Mr. Mugabe's acolytes continue to hold to his political and economic line. This hit home for me in a big way during a recent interview I conducted with three high-ranking members of the ZANU-PF government, who were here in China looking for this country's economic support.

I conducted a round-table discussion with Mr. Absolom Sikhosana, Youth Secretary for the ZANU-PF (the same position held by now-Chinese President Hu Jintao before he came into power), a Tourism official in the Zimbabwe government, and Senator Mandi Chimene. The language and tone of the interview was truly stunning. Zimbabwe has a lot of problems, but has a pretty close relationship to China, given their political ideologies and China's desire to suck up to all things Africa. As such, working for state-run media, there was no way I was going to ask legitimate, hard-hitting questions. However, I did try to couch them in a way that I could still talk about Zimbabwe's problems, by asking them how they were going to fix the situation they were in. But instead of describing how the ZANU-PF was going to solve the problems in Zimbabwe, Mr. Sikhosana set the tone for the rest of the interview straight away by adhering to Mr. Mugabe's anti-Western line. "And now that we are in the situation where the West has abandoned us, and they would want to see Zimbabwe go under, go down the drain, our leadership, our government, our party decided that we would go back to our old-time friends, our all-weather friends, and those are the Chinese." Fair enough. Given that Zimbabwe is under sanctions from the US and Britain, thanks to its land reform strategy and sketchy elections, why not look to China for help. But, unfortunately, I don't think the Zimbabwe government has realized that China has evolved beyond the Mao days.

The other thing that became glaringly evident in the continuation of the interview was the victim mentality that permeated through the entire discussion. The highlight, in my mind, of the Zimbabwean government's victim mentality was highlighted by one of Senator Chimene's comments while talking about how they were going to try to revive Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, suggesting there may be a western conspiracy to keep tractors out of the hands of black farmers. "Now that we are in our feud [British sanctions on Zimbabwe over expropriation of white-farmed land], resistance has come. We have been put to sanctions. We have no draft power. All tractors, even those that were in the same fields [white farmed fields] on that same land, they have been withdrawn. They have put them in warehouses. Some have been banned. Some have been moved to other countries. The reason being that Zimbabwe is known for its ability to use its land. So the only way of getting Zimbabwe back [under British rule] is to block the agricultural system." Ms. Chimene even suggested that the US and British were covertly monitoring the movements of the tractors that remain in the country.

The parallels between Mao's China and Mugabe's Zimbabwe are undeniable. Mao was constantly worried the western powers, and after the Sino-Soviet split the Russians, were trying to usurp the CPC's power in China. It's that conspiratorial nature that eventually led Mao launch the Cultural Revolution. And things don't appear to be too much different in Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe, given Ms. Chimene's suggestions.

One of my closest colleagues spent two years living in Zimbabwe as a correspondent, and has nothing but praise for the people in that country, calling them some of the warmest people she has ever met. And while I've never been to Zimbabwe to witness this personally, something tells me that she's probably right. But as long as the people that govern that country continue to wallow in their victim mentality and see conspiracy around every corner, Mao's China will continue to live on in a small corner of southern Africa, with Mr. Mugabe as the protagonist in this latest saga of repeated history. Let's just hope Mr. Mugabe hasn't started writing a little red book!