The Sunday Mail
Zimbabwe continues to be exemplary in upholding the rule of law, a senior Communist Party of China official has said.
Speaking with senior Zanu-PF officials at a breakfast meeting in Harare yesterday, Vice-Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s international department Ms Xu Lyuping added that they were always open to ideological exchanges with Zimbabwe’s ruling party.
Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister and war veterans’ leader Cde Christopher Mutsvangwa; Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Tabeth Kanengoni; Zanu-PF deputy secretary for youth affairs Cde Kudzi Chipanga and China’s chief diplomat to Zimbabwe Ambassador Lin Lin were among those at the meeting.
Cde Xu said: “I wish to stress that the path and system of rule of law in any country must be decided by its basic national conditions, without which they will be moribund as water with no source or trees with no roots.
“Both China and Zimbabwe are developing countries striving to promote the rule of law with respective characteristics, and Zimbabwe has accumulated much valuable experience in this aspect.
“For example, Zimbabwe wrote a new Constitution last year, based on your own national conditions. We stand ready to strengthen exchanges with the Zimbabwean side on theories and experience of promoting the rule of law.”
Cde Xu said the CPC agreed at the fourth plenary session of its 18th Central Committee in October to improve Chinese-oriented socialist legal systems, placing the Constitution at the core.
The session – convened around the broad theme of rule of law – also resolved to strengthen implementation of the Constitution.
Cde Mutsvangwa said: “We have a good legal system in Zimbabwe. We do have a lot of respect for the rule of law and our commercial law is as good as any, and is very great for business. We do have a lot of areas of co-operation, which we can offer to our Chinese friends in some aspects.
“And because we speak English, which is an international language, we can co-operate and do a lot of exchange.”
Zanu-PF and the CPC enjoy cordial relations dating back to Zimbabwe’s armed struggle against Ian Smith’s colonialist regime.
In July, CPC Politburo member Mr Guo Jinlong visited Zimbabwe to exchange notes with Zanu-PF, and that visit was reciprocated in November.
In 2005, Zanu-PF and CPC agreed to dialogue yearly on mutual interests at bilateral, regional and international level.
