A Letter Across Generations: Zimbabwe, China and the Renewal of Liberation Solidarity
By Kirtan Bhana
16 February 2026
President Xi Jinping’s reply to veterans of Zimbabwe’s national liberation war is more than diplomatic courtesy, it is a reaffirmation of a relationship forged in struggle and now recalibrated for a new era of modernization and people-centred development.
In their January 2026 letter, the veterans expressed heartfelt gratitude for China’s material and ideological support during the liberation struggle against the Rhodesian regime. They recalled how assistance in the 1960s and 1970s strengthened the freedom movements. That struggle culminated in independence on 18 April 1980 following the Lancaster House Agreement, a negotiated settlement that formally ended colonial minority rule but left unresolved structural economic distortions inherited from colonialism.
In his reply, President Xi honoured the veterans’ sacrifices and reaffirmed that China has always been “a good comrade and partner in Africa’s quest for national liberation, development and rejuvenation.” He situated 2026 as a historic milestone — marking 70 years of China-Africa diplomatic relations and the Year of People-to-People Exchanges — and called for the tireless spirit symbolised by the dragon and the horse to guide a new chapter in an “all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future.”
Historical Continuity and Civilizational Depth
Relations between China and Africa did not begin with the Cold War. Civilizational contact between the two regions stretches back millennia through trade routes across the Indian Ocean. What the liberation era did, however, was politicise and deepen those contacts into solidarity grounded in shared experience — anti-colonial resistance, sovereignty and dignity.
For Zimbabwe, the Second Chimurenga (1964–1979) was not merely a military conflict; it was a reclamation of land, identity and political agency after decades of settler colonialism. China’s support during that period left a psychological and strategic imprint that continues to shape bilateral relations.
The veterans’ letter demonstrates that memory remains an active diplomatic force. Liberation history is not nostalgia; it is the moral foundation upon which contemporary partnerships are built.
From Liberation to Modernisation
If the first phase of China–Zimbabwe relations was forged in struggle, the present phase is oriented toward modernisation and economic renewal. The veterans explicitly praised the “Chinese path to modernization,” recognising how China’s people-centred governance model has enabled innovation, lifted hundreds of millions from poverty, and built advanced industrial and technological capacity.
China’s rise from a country scarred by the Opium Wars and imperial subjugation to the world’s second-largest economy is widely viewed across Africa as proof that development need not follow externally imposed templates. For many in the Global South, China’s experience challenges post-colonial economic orthodoxy and offers lessons in long-term planning, state capacity, and social mobilisation.
Zimbabwe’s own trajectory since independence has been complex and contested. The Lancaster House Agreement, while ending war, constrained early land reform and left ownership patterns heavily skewed. Subsequent land redistribution and indigenization policies triggered sharp international backlash, including unilateral sanctions that functioned as economic weapons. These measures, justified as instruments of “democratic correction,” often exacerbated economic instability rather than resolving structural imbalances.
Today, as Zimbabwe shows signs of economic recalibration and “green shoots” of recovery particularly through diversified partnerships with China and other non-Western economies the exchange of letters signals political confidence and strategic continuity. It suggests that Harare sees Beijing not only as an investor or trade partner, but as a long-term developmental ally.
Regional Implications for SADC
For the Southern African Development Community (SADC), this renewed affirmation of Zimbabwe–China ties has broader resonance. The post-colonial economic architecture that bound many African economies to primary commodity exports and Western-dominated financial systems is undergoing strain. Rising global fragmentation, contestation over rare earth minerals, and shifting trade patterns are exposing the vulnerabilities of older dependency structures.
As post-colonial arrangements weaken, new configurations are emerging — more multipolar, more South-South oriented, and more focused on sovereign development strategies. China’s expanding engagement across SADC in infrastructure, energy, logistics and digital connectivity intersects with regional aspirations for industrialisation and value addition.
The symbolic weight of Xi’s letter therefore extends beyond Harare. It reinforces a narrative in which African liberation history connects organically to contemporary modernization partnerships, rather than being subordinated to external geopolitical agendas.
Challenging Narratives and Reframing Agency
The commentary surrounding Zimbabwe has often been framed through a singular lens of crisis and dysfunction. Yet the persistence of unilateral sanctions, fluctuating commodity markets, and structural debt pressures reveals deeper contradictions in the global order.
As some developed nations face rising public debt, social insecurity, escalating energy costs and increased military expenditure justified by threat narratives including a so-called “China threat” the moral authority underpinning their critique of developing states is increasingly contested. The exchange between Zimbabwe’s veterans and President Xi highlights an alternative framing: development anchored in sovereignty, collective upliftment and mutual respect.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative expanded trade access for African countries, and commitment to multilateralism are presented by many African actors not as instruments of domination, but as pragmatic mechanisms for shared prosperity.
2026: The Year of People-to-People Exchanges
The designation of 2026 as the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges adds an important cultural and human dimension. Political solidarity forged in the trenches of liberation now evolves into exchanges in education, tourism, youth engagement, technology and cultural industries.
For Zimbabwe, this represents an opportunity to reposition itself — not merely as a beneficiary of historical solidarity, but as an active participant in a dynamic, modern partnership. Travel, tourism, hospitality and cultural diplomacy become economic multipliers and narrative correctives, allowing ordinary citizens to experience each other beyond geopolitical rhetoric.
A Profound Disruption in International Relations
The correspondence between President Xi and Zimbabwe’s liberation veterans is thus emblematic of a broader systemic shift. As older hegemonic frameworks strain under internal contradictions, new people-centred and collective systems are emerging — shaped by multipolarity, regional integration and South-South cooperation.
Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle cost over 30,000 lives. Its memory remains central to national identity. By acknowledging that history while aligning it with modernisation and regional cooperation, the exchange of letters bridges past sacrifice with future aspiration.
In that sense, the letters are not simply diplomatic artefacts. They are markers of continuity — from the battlefield to the development plan, from solidarity in struggle to partnership in rejuvenation — signalling that the arc of China–Zimbabwe relations continues to bend toward collective sovereignty, shared prosperity and a rebalanced global order.