The Zimbabweans were urged to learn from China's economic miracle in order to realize an economic turnaround, The Herald commented on Monday.

In an article by David Chiweza, former Zimbabwean defense attache to China during the period from 1992 to 1998, the newspaper said China is becoming the center of the world with many miracles, and it is necessary to look at its past to understand the present.

Chiweza, the author of the article, said as a witness to China's early economic environment, he wanted to draw the Zimbabweans' attention to the sacrifices made by China to reach the current level of development.

Chiweza recalled how China had become a country of "Opening to the Outside World" from a closed nation, saying "the Chinese were making economic experiments through trial and error."

"Out of experimentation came mastery, and out of mastery emerged the economic revolution that is founded on the strengths and knowledge of the indigenous people of China," the article said.

The article called on the Zimbabweans to learn from China's five development strategies: imitation, improvement, improvisation, innovation and invention.

The newspaper also carried a story hailing the good relations between Zimbabwe and China under the policy of Look East.

In a story titled "Sun rising in the East and setting in the West," the newspaper said the Chinese are Zimbabweans' true friends forever, as China has closely associated with and assisted Zimbabwe in the economic, political and social spheres.

"The core relationship between the two countries is mutual respect, noninterference in the internal affairs and value for each other's sovereignty," the newspaper said.

As an example, the newspaper said, China granted Zimbabwe the coveted Approved Tourist Destination status in 2003 when the Western world had begun vilifying the government for embarking on the land reform program.

The West's foreign policy is grounded on dictatorship and gunboat diplomacy. China, on the other hand, bases its diplomacy on mutual respect, sovereignty and mutual reliability.

Also, the newspaper said, China set up an institute to teach Chinese language and culture in the needs of cooperation with each other and exchanging notes of their way of life on an equal basis, while the Westerners were imposing mass culture and ways of life under the guise of democracy.

The list goes on as China has helped Zimbabwe in the agriculture, mining, trade, investment, energy and economic sectors, which is why China is the biggest investor in Zimbabwe with a portfolio worth 600 million U.S. dollars, it said.

"Our nation has received enough battering from the West and does not need anyone to tell us who are friends and who are foes -- the Chinese are our friends and the SADC is our home," the newspaper concluded.

Source: Xinhua