In addition to providing military training and hardware, China – Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor – has sponsored the construction of hospitals, schools and even a government building.
Here are the main areas of Chinese investment and help:
Military facilities
China financed and built the Zimbabwe National Defence College, the country’s first military higher education academy, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Besides visiting Beijing last week, Zimbabwean military chief General Constantino Chiwenga has been in regular contact with top officials from the People’s Liberation Army. After meeting a visiting Chinese military delegation in December, Chiwenga said Zimbabwe’s armed forces had benefited from military training programmes in cooperation with the PLA, according to The Herald, a state-owned newspaper in Zimbabwe.