Sino-Namibian relations

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Sino-Namibian relations
Flag of the People's Republic of China   Flag of Namibia
     People's Republic of China      Namibia

Sino-Namibian relations refer to the official and historical relations between to the People's Republic of China and Republic of Namibia. Governmental relations were first established the day after Namibia's independence, but relations with Namibian independence movements date back to the 1960s.[1]

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[edit] Chinese support for independence movements

Beginning in the 1960s, during the Namibian War of Independence, China provided various indigenous Namibian independence movements (at first South West African National Union (SWANU)[2] and later South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) with "moral and material support".[3]

[edit] China since Namibian independence

PR China and Namibia established relations on 22 March 1990, which was the day after Namibia's independence.[4] The government of Namibia is an adherent to the One-China policy.[5]

[edit] Economic relations

China and Namibia have developed close economic relations, with trade increasing two-fold between the two countries from 2003-2006. During a February 2007 visit, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged Namibia "RMB 1 billion of concessional loans, 100 million US dollars of preferential export buyer's credit, RMB 30 million yuan of grants and RMB 30 million of interest-free loans..."[6]

[edit] An Yue Jiang scandal

In April 2008, a weapons shipment on the An Yue Jiang container ship from China to Zimbabwe was stopped from porting in South Africa. Seeking a destination for the ship, it was rumored that the ship would be port on Namibia's coast at Walvis Bay. On 24 April, 2008, a protest took place in Namibia's capital of Windhoek, where two hundred protesters marched from a local park to the Chinese embassy.[7] The ship did not port in Namibia.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Interpretation of China-Namibia Relations in Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China
  2. ^ SWANU official web site
  3. ^ Interpretation of China-Namibia Relations in Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China
  4. ^ Interpretation of China-Namibia Relations in Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China
  5. ^ President Hu calls for closer China-Namibia ties in China Daily, 20 December 2005
  6. ^ Interpretation of China-Namibia Relations in Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China
  7. ^ Namibians say NO to arms by Tanja Bause, The Namibian, 25 April 2008