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A country with a per capita population of more than 100 million but full of beggars; a country known as the "granary of Africa" but hungry per capita; a country that has been collectively sanctioned by the West but insists on anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism, it is Zimbabwe. What is this country so special to China? Why would China spend $1 billion to help such a country build its steel industry? Today, the old history will give you a break.
A country in Zimbabwe that is "ridden on the face" by white people
On 18 April 1980, a country in the southeastern African state called Rhodesia declared its independence and changed its name to Zimbabwe. The mention of Zimbabwe is one who has to mention an Englishman named Cecil Rhodes.
Cecil Rhodes was born on 5 July 1853 in Hertfordshire, England, where his father, Rhodes Sr., was an archbishop of the Church of England and a proper English magnate.
But Rhodes suffered from asthma from an early age, so on September 1, 1870, at the age of 17, Rhodes was sent to South Africa by his father for convalescence, and this backward African land also fully awakened the Anglo-Saxon "barbarian" blood of Rhodes, and he soon learned to plunder.
Between 1870 and 1889, Rhodes acquired a large number of estates by plundering and established a monopoly position in the world diamond industry by uniting with the Syndicate, a mutual aid of commerce in London.
As a scam that has lasted for 3 centuries, diamonds have made countless black Africans shed blood and tears, and the "blood diamonds" stained with African blood have become a symbol of loyal love, which is ironic.
But diamonds are only a small part of Rhodes' business empire, along with oil companies, mining companies and fruit companies.
Still not satisfied, he heard that Zimbabwe had gold, so in 1888 he obtained mining rights throughout Zimbabwe by tricking the local chiefs of the former Southern Rhodesia (now southern Zimbabwe) and established the infamous Great Britain South Africa Company in 1899.
In the same year, Rhodes received a charter from Queen Victoria, which provided for the prerogatives of the British-controlled Company of Great Britain, South Africa, which had the privilege of concluding treaties, organizing local governments, establishing violent institutions and military units, as well as doing business and building banks, and controlling the exploitation of land and mineral deposits.
Overnight, Rhodes became the "Emperor of the Soil" of South Africa, but unfortunately Rhodes did not find gold in Zimbabwe, but the British found zimbabwe fertile, and soon under Rhodes' push, signed the Glen Gray Decree, and the South African Company began legislation to expel blacks and recruited 3,000 British mercenaries for the operation.
For every English mercenary who entered Rhodesia to expel blacks, he was given 1,200 hectares of land, but the local blacks whose land was taken became the tenants of white Englishmen.
In fact, the entire area of Zimbabwe suitable for arable land is not much, mainly concentrated in the current three provinces of Marshall Naland East Province, Marshall Naland Central Province and Marshall Na lanxi Province, these areas can reach 750-1000mm, the average annual temperature can reach 18.4 °C, the overall climate is similar to the continental Hunan region.
White plantations were concentrated in these areas, but as Rhodesia's white population began to increase dramatically, according to Rhodesia's 1921 census, the number of white Europeans had reached 33,620 and was growing rapidly.
In order to further plunder black land, in 1930 the Great Britain South Africa Company signed the Land Apportionment and Land Tenure Act, which swept away all the fertile land in southern Rhodesia, and a large number of blacks lost their own land and could only be hired by whites.
By the time Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, more than 40 percent of the arable land was controlled by whites, and there were about 5,000 white farms, each with hundreds of blacks employed in white families.
Through mechanized production, white plantations could produce tobacco, tea, sugar cane, coffee, corn, wheat and other crops on a large scale, and exported them to Europe in large quantities, once contributing 40% of Zimbabwe's GDP and 60% of foreign exchange, and also made Zimbabwe known as the "bread basket" at that time.
In addition to grain, a large number of minerals in Zimbabwe have also been exported to Europe, Zimbabwe is the world's second largest platinum producer, its nickel production, ferrochrome reserves are extremely rich, even if by 2022 Zimbabwe's pillar industry is still mining.
By plundering blacks, white Zimbabweans were so wealthy that the average local black earned about $500 a year, while whites earned $8,000, according to data released in Rhodesia in 1975.
Class divisions and income disparities exacerbated the contradictions between blacks and whites, but whites, led by British immigrants, declared Rhodesia independent and independent in 1965 in order to further suppress blacks, with less than 1% of whites in power.
At this moment, the British were anxious, who could have imagined that Britain, which had been fighting eagles all day, was pecked by eagles. Although Rhodesia independence was not internationally recognized, it further stimulated the local blacks, who began full-scale guerrilla warfare.
In 1978, caught between international sanctions and the black armed movement, the white Rhodesian government finally compromised. Rhodesia held its first democratic elections in 1980 and on 18 April 1980 Rhodesia was renamed the Republic of Zimbabwe and formally established its independence.
But Zimbabwe's biggest problem remains unresolved.
Why China and Zimbabwe can become good friends
At this time, land and minerals owned by white Zimbabweans, as well as the legacy of colonial economy, still hindered the development of the country.
By the end of the 20th century, Zimbabwe's food could no longer meet the exports, and by 2008, Zimbabwe's food production capacity could only meet the daily needs of 70% of the population. The land reform, which directly cost Zimbabwe nearly $15 billion in agricultural losses and Zimbabwe's GDP of only $4.4 billion in 2008, was not a success in terms of results.
The main reason is zimbabwe's retained colonial economy, which is heavily dependent on external markets, coupled with the fact that Zimbabwean leaders forcibly distribute white land to landless blacks, but the lack of mechanization of the black smallholder economy is not market competitive at all.
Zimbabwe also forcibly returned white land, which was subject to joint sanctions by the British-led Commonwealth countries and the United States, although Zimbabwe did not compromise.
However, the reality is not optimistic.
By the beginning of the 21st century, Zimbabwe had experienced severe inflation, with 1 Zimbabwe dollar equaling about $1.50 in 1980 and $500 million worth of Zimbabwe dollars in 2008 equaling $2.50.
So Zimbabwe at this time is a billionaire for everyone, and it is also a billionaire for everyone. Although the International Labour Organization publishes that Zimbabwe's unemployment rate is only about 5% and that of China, Western media and some NGOs have provided data showing that Zimbabwe's unemployment rate is as high as more than 90%.
Fraud cannot be concealed because Zimbabwe's economic growth is not sustainable and it is impossible to provide such a huge amount of employment. Therefore, at this time, Zimbabwe also knows that if it does not save itself, it will usher in a catastrophe.
If they gained the support of the United States and Britain through compromise, Zimbabwe would be plundered by the West sustainably, so they approached China to develop industry.
Because China is not only an "infrastructure maniac", but also a well-known "industrial maniac", especially steel, as the most core raw material for the development of industry, it also reflects the comprehensive industrial strength of a country.
Crude steel production under China's control will still reach 1.03 billion tonnes in 2021, and the top 10 crude steel production in the top 10 countries is not as high as China's.
Zimbabwe's reserves of 930 million tons of chromite, ranking second in the world, and the nickel metal used in the manufacture of stainless steel nickel-iron alloys, Zimbabwe's reserves also reached 761,000 tons.
In addition, Zimbabwe's iron ore volume is more than 38 billion tons, which is comparable to Brazil's proven reserves, and the average grade of iron ore can reach 40%-50%, while the average grade of iron ore in China is only 34.5%, and even the average grade of global iron ore is 46.6%.
Zimbabwe has not rationally utilized such a good ore because its steel mills have ceased production since 2008 and have not mined iron ore at present.
At the same time, China's iron ore imports in 2021 will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, and Zimbabwe will be hungry to see this huge amount, but its own mining capacity and smelting capacity are really limited.
But quietly, China's largest private steel giant, Tsingshan Holdings Group, has laid out zimbabwe.
Tsingshan Holdings is not as famous as Huawei and Ali, but among the top 500 private enterprises in China in 2021, Tsingshan Holding Group ranked 14th with an annual revenue of 292.8 billion yuan, making it the largest steel enterprise in China.
Just in 2008, during the downturn in the global market, Tsingshan Holdings spent a lot of money to win the mining rights of 47,000 hectares of laterite nickel ore in Indonesia, and successfully entered the upstream of the stainless steel industry, and now Tsingshan Holdings' stainless steel production capacity has already exceeded 10 million tons and ranked first in the world.
With the development of new energy, the output of ternary lithium batteries has increased sharply, and nickel, as the core material of ternary lithium batteries, has also begun to grow significantly.
And Tsingshan Holdings in Indonesia to win the laterite nickel mine, the annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of nickel equivalent, accounting for half of China's annual nickel production, 12% of the annual nickel production, and the world's first, Tsingshan Holdings nickel ore also makes China's new energy development uncontrolled.
Today's Qingshan Holdings has become a global champion of stainless steel production capacity and nickel production capacity, and the technical level and capital strength are naturally not to be said. However, in the recent russian-Ukrainian war on nickel prices, Russian nickel mines have been sanctioned by the West, nickel mines are seriously insufficient, and the West has also taken the opportunity to force Qingshan Holdings to take down Qingshan's nickel mining plant in Indonesia.
Therefore, Tsingshan Holdings, together with local enterprises, invested US$1 billion to build a whole steel industry chain of mining, separation and smelting in Zimbabwe's East Marshallland, Central And west Muskornaland provinces.
This investment will drive the development of Zimbabwe's power, chemical, transportation and other related infrastructure, and while China is building a large number of construction projects in Zimbabwe, China-Zimbabwe relations have begun to develop comprehensively and become mutually supportive "good friends".
At present, 95% of Zimbabwe's vaccines come from China, and as China and Zimbabwe become more and more "sweet", the British and Australian collectives cannot sit still.
Why did Britain and Australia break the defense collectively
As the great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it was able to make a fortune by robbery, and it can be said that the British developed the technology of robbery to an alarming extent.
Just gently stirring the stick, some countries have to rely on British orders to survive, the low-priced minerals and resources are all sold to British companies, such as Nigeria's 55% of the oil is controlled by the British Shell (qiao) brand oil, off-topic Shell is ready to move its headquarters to the United Kingdom, the company will delete the Dutch Royal, and then it will be a complete British company.
Compared with the past, Britain used to use cannons to open our country's door to open the market, and now Britain only needs to use the churning stick to disgust and disgust people to make a lot of money.
As China grows stronger and stronger, helping third world countries develop infrastructure, we can get local resources and hopefully transfer surplus industries in the future. It can be said that how China once made its fortune, China now teaches others how to do it.
This undoubtedly made Britain, which has been enjoying the dividends of the colonial economy, unbearable, and the West began to slander China's infrastructure in all aspects from geography, international regulations, labor security and economic impact.
These did create some obstacles to China, but Lao Ziyun: in Daoye, it is known as surplus food. The overdevelopment of capital will become insatiable and rejected by the avenue.
This time, China's steel industry in Zimbabwe has improved Zimbabwe's infrastructure and promoted local employment on the one hand; on the other hand, it has increased the added value of local minerals and completely broken the colonial economic dilemma that Zimbabwe has been exporting raw minerals.
In addition, China's demand for steel is still huge, and 50% of the iron ore currently traded in the world comes from Australia and 70% of iron ore is acquired by China, which shows Australia's restrictions on iron ore to China.
In fact, There is no contradiction between China and Australia, but the United Kingdom and Australia belong to the Commonwealth countries, Australia has to give the United Kingdom and the United States an outlet, using various ways to raise the price of high-speed rail ore, in the past few years, the price of iron ore per ton is about 40 US dollars / ton, and in the first half of 2021, it once rose to a maximum of 233 US dollars / ton.
Soaring steel prices must also hinder the development of the mainland, and in order to vent our anger and combat the ugly behavior of the West to raise prices, we will inevitably seek other ways to get more iron ore, Zimbabwe is the best place, and we have the same enemy.
With a series of measures by China, today's iron ore prices have fallen by more than 50%, reaching about $80 / ton, which also makes Australia regret the beginning, and many economic experts have said that they are worried that Australia's foreign trade will have major losses.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Western way of excessively pursuing profits will encounter such a dilemma, Lao Ziyun: enterprises do not stand, and crossers do not. Excessive pursuit of interests will eventually be eaten by interests.