Zimbabwe Becomes Beijing's First African Colony With Adoption Of Chinese Yuan

To say that Zimbabwe has not had much luck with its monetary system experiments, would be an understatement. 

After its disastrous adventures with hyperinflation denominated in its own currency...

... Zimbabwe decided to entirely abandon its reserve currency and shift to the dollar. 

As we reported over the summer, the Zimbabwe Central bank completely "demonetized" the old Zimbabwe Dollar which would be removed as legal tender after the currency’s use was abandoned in 2009 following a surge in inflation to 500 billion percent. To do this, the bank would exchange up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars for $5 US dollars, the country’s central bank said. 

Which, as we admitted then, surprised us for three reasons. 

First, as noted in 2011, in a stunning example of irony, Zimbabwe cult central banker Gideon Gono made it clear he wishes to avoid another episode of transplant currency hyperinflation courtesy of his counterpart in the Marriner Eccles building and "warned that Zimbabwe’s nascent economic recovery is at the mercy of the United States dollar, which is facing new pressures from the Euro-zone debt crisis." Yes, Zimbabwe was bashing the US Dollar.

Gono said Zimbabwe should in be looking to the Chinese yuan as its main currency, while urgently seeking to restore its own currency which was abandoned in 2009 after a dramatic loss of its value. Amusingly, he said that "with the continuous firming of the Chinese yuan, the US dollar is fast ceasing to be the world's reserve currency and the Euro-Zone debt crisis has made things even worse." And the terminal slap in the face of all that is American: "As a country, we still have the opportunity to avoid being caught napping by adopting the Chinese yuan as part of consolidating the country's look East policy." 

Second, as further reported early in 2015, China decided to reciprocate Zimbabwe's diplomatic overtures, by taking a special interest in the south African nation bordering the gold and diamond rich Republic of South Africa. It did so by announcing it planned to set up a modern high-tech military base in Zimbabwe's diamond-rich Marange fields.

The news of the agreement to set up the first Chinese military airbase in Africa comes amid increasing bilateral cooperation between Zimbabwe and China – notably in mining, agriculture and preferential trade. China is the only country exempted from the indigenisation laws which force all foreign investors to cede 51% of their shareholding to carefully selected indigenous Zimbabweans.

China could be positioning itself for future “gunboat diplomacy” where its military presence would give it bargaining power against superpowers like the US. It would also be safeguarding its significant economic interests in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa.

The third, and most important reason, is that according to leaked confidential Central Intelligence Organisation documents suggested that China had played a central role in retaining President Robert Mugabe in the country's most recent elections, indicating that high level military officers had worked closely with the local army in poll strategies while Beijing bankrolled the ruling party, Zanu (PF).

The new Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Lin Lin, recently said trade between the two countries last year exceeded the $1 billion mark. Yet Zimbabwe is only 26th on the list of China’s 58 biggest African trading partners.

The Asian country has supplied Zimbabwe with military hardware, including MIG jet fighters, tanks, armoured vehicles and rifles, since Independence. In other words, while nobody was looking, China just took over one more nation without spilling a drop of blood.

And then, on Monday, all of our confusion was laid to rest when Zimbabwe announced that this small, economically devastated country would officially make the Chinese Yuan its legal tender as it seeks to increase trade with Beijing. In exchange for becoming not only a military but also financial colony of China, $40 million of its debts to Beijing would be canceled. 

China was delighted it cost it only a $40 million debt write off to acquire its first official African colony.

Credit to Zero Hedge