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"China has turned down an offer by President Robert Mugabe’s government to take over farms seized from whites apparently because Beijing feared there was no guarantee that such an investment would be secure in the long term, authoritative sources said."

Translation: "We'd rather deal with Kim Bong Ill than YOU, you nut."

dont count the chicoms out just yet. they seriously desire a boothold in africa, but they want it with a coastline, not landlocked. zim will still be in death throes next year so this deal could reappear with more favorable terms for china. but honestly, would anyone really care if zim disappeared tomorrow? i know i wouldnt because if you really really desire to starve, i think you should be allowed to starve.

china's move away from communism (and towards fascism unfortunately) started when they allowed private farms and a fairly open food market, and were astonished to discover that private markets will actually keep china fed and make famine a thing of the terrible (communist) past...

the idiot mugabe must have thought that the chinese would set up one of those collective stalinist farms which he remembered reading about in the glowing communist propaganda he ingested when he was a university student -- *IF* there are actually any of these left in china, they are big money losers for the chinese PLA so they probably opted out when it became clear that mugabe was expecting china to make up the losses.

i am actually surprised the negociations went as far as they did...