Over 85,000 Chinese nationals now live in Zimbabwe — not as migrants seeking new homes, but as agents of China’s global industrial machine. Their growing presence signals something far more serious than cultural exchange or business partnerships. It marks a deliberate, well-executed strategy: extract Zimbabwe’s wealth, export it to China, and leave little behind.

Zimbabwe has become a key cog in China’s resource-hungry engine. The country holds what Beijing needs — some of the world’s best chrome reserves, massive iron ore deposits, coal, and now, highly sought-after lithium. To the Chinese state and its corporations, Zimbabwe is not a partner. It’s a resource depot.

Take lithium as an example. Zimbabwe exports around $4 billion worth of lithium concentrate annually, but the government doesn’t properly account for the other valuable minerals in the ore. This means billions more are being siphoned off without scrutiny. While Chinese companies rake in profits, Zimbabwe is left with the crumbs — and an environment permanently scarred by reckless extraction.

Gold is another industry where China’s shadow looms large. A quarter of Zimbabwe’s gold output reportedly flows into Chinese hands through secretive deals and large-scale mining operations that ignore local regulations. Open-cast mines destroy ecosystems, poison water sources, and devastate communities. Yet the authorities look the other way, bought off or too weak to act.

This model of exploitation isn’t new. It began in the Marange diamond fields, where over $30 billion in diamonds has disappeared — benefiting Chinese firms and Zimbabwe’s elite. The local people of Marange? Still poor. Still without roads, hospitals, or clean water. The only evidence of the diamond boom is the sudden appearance of mansions owned by corrupt generals and foreign investors.

Even Chinese-backed infrastructure projects serve this agenda. From Hwange Power Station to future plans for a port in Mozambique, these developments are designed to move Zimbabwe’s resources — not to improve the lives of ordinary citizens. Hwange, for instance, was built at inflated costs and operates inefficiently, driving electricity prices up for locals. Meanwhile, Chinese companies enjoy cheap, reliable coal-fired power for their mines.

The Belt and Road Initiative, sold as a development lifeline, has become a trap. Just like Kenya’s stalled railway and Ethiopia’s debt-ridden projects, Zimbabwe is left with overpriced, underperforming infrastructure financed by loans that deepen dependency. These deals are signed in secrecy, executed with little oversight, and structured to benefit China — not Zimbabwe.

What makes this worse is the failure of Zimbabwe’s own leaders. They allow these deals, enable the looting, and pocket the bribes. Chinese companies are not the only ones to blame. Local elites facilitate this betrayal — while the people suffer.

And through it all, no value is added. Raw materials are exported without processing. Steel billets, lithium concentrate, ferrochrome — all shipped out, unrefined. No factories, no jobs, no future. Just holes in the ground and stolen opportunity.

Zimbabweans must wake up. We must ask: who is really benefiting? Who is protecting the environment? Who is ensuring that future generations will inherit more than polluted rivers and exhausted mines?

The Western world’s absence has left a vacuum. But that doesn’t mean Zimbabwe should surrender to exploitation. China’s involvement must come with rules — real ones. Mandatory local employment, environmental enforcement, infrastructure that serves communities, and full transparency on all resource deals.

Most importantly, our leaders must stop selling the country’s future for short-term gain. Zimbabwe is not poor — it is being robbed. Our wealth is vast. But until it is managed by people with vision, integrity, and courage, it will continue to build foreign empires instead of our own.

The time to act is now. Before our mines are empty, our rivers are poisoned, and our chance at true independence is lost forever. Zimbabwe must rise and take back control of its destiny. This is not partnership — this is plunder. And it must end.