How China’s Imperial Face is Mutilating Zimbabwe’s Liberation Gain

By Rozvi Changamire

The revolutionary struggle that birthed the independence of Zimbabwe was anchored on the sacred principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the restoration of dignity to the black person.

Decades later, a chilling irony has emerged as the very “all-weather friend” that provided arms and ideological training during the liberation era is increasingly perceived as the primary architect of a new, predatory epoch.

Across the rural heartlands and industrial hubs, the gains of the revolution are being systematically eroded by activities that bear the unmistakable hallmarks of 19th-century imperialism.

What was once a relationship of brotherhood has transformed into a one-sided extraction where the country’s dependency on Beijing for geopolitical standing and economic lifelines has left it vulnerable to a partner that now acts more like a “Bigger Brother” with a colonial appetite, taking advantage of a ruling party that feels indebted to its past assistance.

Evidence of this betrayal is nowhere more visible than in the ongoing crisis at Bryden Country School near Chegutu.

Despite a High Court order in March 2025 demanding that Shuntai Investments suspend construction of a cement plant less than 500 meters from the school boundary, the Chinese firm brazenly pressed on with blasting and heavy machinery works.

Even after a High Court judge personally visited the site and found the company in contempt, the arrogance persisted with the school reporting noxious fumes and toxic dust choking its students.

This blatant defiance of the judiciary is not merely a corporate dispute; it is an assault on the sovereign authority of the Zimbabwean State and a threat to fundamental human rights, the rights of children and education.

Further, this betrayal is most viscerally felt in the blood and dust of rural Zimbabwe.

In Mutoko, the sanctity of the soil was violated in October 2025 when a Chinese security supervisor at Zhuhe Mining allegedly shot and killed Fungai Nhau, a local man.

While the company clinically dismissed the life taken as that of a “gangster” and a thief, the local community saw only the cold-blooded execution of a citizen on his own land.

This follows a dark pattern across the country; in Gweru, workers have been shot by Chinese employers for simply demanding their unpaid wages, a scene where a desperate man, Kholwani Dube, was recorded shouting “I want my money, shoot me!” only to be met with live fire.

In Bindura, the world watched in horror as viral footage emerged of Chinese nationals hanging local employees by their hands from the bucket of a front-end loader.

These are not isolated incidents; they are the symptoms of an imperialist face that regards the Zimbabwean worker as a subhuman cog in an extraction machine.In the hills of Shurugwi and the valleys of Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe, the environmental and labor “genocide” continues with impunity.

In Uzumba, a ZANU PF stronghold, ancestral graves are being desecrated and communal lands carved up by granite miners who treat the local population as obstacles to be moved rather than owners of the heritage.

This blatant defiance of the judiciary is an assault on the sovereign authority of the State, proving that these “investors” believe they are above the very laws the revolution fought to establish.

These acts constitute a form of “environmental genocide,” stripping the rural masses, the very bedrock of the revolutionary movement, of their heritage and livelihoods.

The Chinese reaction to these mounting crises has been characterized by a bullish indifference that resonates with the colonial attitudes depicted in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

In that novella, the author portrays the European view of Africa as a savage “jungle” to be plundered.

Echoing this, the Chinese Embassy in Harare issued a statement in October 2025 that focused less on remorse or legal compliance and more on advising its nationals to “up security” and “prepare for emergencies.”

By depicting the Zimbabwean landscape as a hostile frontier where they must prepare for a “savage force” rather than a sovereign partner to be respected, the statement reveals a deeply ingrained colonial tendency.

They extract the wealth while following a playbook that treats local laws as mere inconveniences to be circumvented through the “weaponization” of certain local actors.

Compounding this betrayal is the role of some members of the group of cyber activists who regard themselves as varakashi.

In this group, there is a wayward band of ideologically inept and treasonous cyber mercenaries.

Instead of fulfilling their mandate to defend the President of Zimbabwe and the gains of the revolution, these activists have been weaponized to defend Chinese interests at all costs.

They argue that the country’s systems are “weak” and that local corruption is the true culprit, effectively throwing President Dr Emmerson Mnangagwa and ZANU PF under the bus to protect their foreign benefactors.

This is hogwash; Zimbabwe commands one of the most lethal and effective security and law enforcement systems in Africa.

The failure to arrest this “criminal genocide” is not a lack of capacity, but a diplomatic paralysis.

It can be argued that enforcing the law will trigger a standoff with the “Bigger Brother” who protects Zimbabwe at the UN, but this logic implies that Africa is indeed in a new form of colonialism a “sphere of influence” as established at the Berlin Conference and recently hinted at by figures like Donald Trump regarding other nations.

If Zimbabwe is to have permanent sovereignty, the Chinese Embassy must wake from its slumber and act as a responsible “parental proxy.”

Beijing possesses the legal tools, such as the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which holds citizens liable for crimes committed abroad that tarnish the national image, to leash these rogue nationals.

For instance, Articles 7 and 10 of the PRC Criminal Law establish the “Nationality Principle,” a powerful legal leash that allows Beijing to prosecute Chinese citizens for crimes committed on Zimbabwean soil, such as the fatal shootings in Mutoko or the labor abuses in Shurugwi and even any possible corruption cases which are punishable by death in China. Article 7.

This law is applicable to PRC citizens who commit the crimes specified in this law outside the territory of the PRC; but those who commit the crimes, provided that this law stipulates a minimum sentence of less than a three-year fixed-term imprisonment for such crimes, may not be dealt with.

Article 7 ensures that any Chinese national committing a serious offense abroad remains under the “long arm” of Chinese jurisdiction while Article 10 stipulates that even if an offender is tried in Zimbabwe, they are not exempt from further investigation and punishment upon returning to China.

The Chinese Embassy, acting as a parental proxy, can use these tools to repatriate rogue individuals, blacklist companies that tarnish China’s national image, and ensure that no national hides behind a local “weak” legal outcome thereby protecting the “All-Weather” diplomatic brand from being poisoned by the actions of a few.

These matters require a pragmatic diplomatic resolution where Chinese law is used to discipline Chinese greed.

Without such intervention, the continued plundering of resources and the physical abuse of the people will inevitably erode the popularity of the ruling party in its most loyal strongholds.

The revolution was fought so that Zimbabwe would never again be a colony; to allow an “all-weather friend” to act as a new master is to mortgage the nation’s soul to pay a debt that was supposed to be based on brotherhood, not bondage.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Rozvi Changamire. They do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy, position or views of 263Chat, its editors, management or affiliates. 263Chat publishes this article as part of its commitment to providing a platform for diverse perspectives and robust public debate.