 China's President Xi Jinping is talking tough. He has warned that foreign powers will get their heads bashed if they attempt to bully or influence his country. He delivered a defiant speech at an event marketing or marking the sentenary of the ruling Communist Party. Mr. Xi also said Beijing would not allow what he called sanctimonious preaching. The remarks are widely seen as directed at the United States. He comes as China faces criticism over alleged human rights abuses and its crackdown on Hong Kong. And we're now being joined by Farai Movuti. He is from the South African times. He's a senior analyst. Thank you very much for joining us, Farai. Thank you for having me. Great. Let's start with the fact that China is marking its 100th anniversary and of course a lot of people have described China in different ways. How would you describe China's growth over the years? Well, short of a miracle, if you consider the fact that China has gone through quite a number of very apocatical moments, if you consider, that from the history of Mao Tse-tong to Deng Xiaoping when he introduced the moment of reform for the country after facing quite a number of years of extreme poverty, to put it in basic terms, China was literally had more poor people and still does to degree more poor people than in Africa, GDP-wise, a very weak space. But over 30 years post their reform, they have been able to grow the economy, move a number of over 700 million people from poverty to the middle class. And they've been able to create great strides in areas of technology, military progress, expand their investment externally and prefer that their aspirations within an economic diplomatic way, which makes them quite different to a number of their continental partner, global partners within the economic village as it were. Well, President Xi Jinping is saying that China will come down hard on these foreign powers that attempt to bully or influence it. What kind of message do you think he's sending to the likes of the US and the UK? Well, I think we need to read that within the context of what he was saying in a historical fashion. China did experience quite a large extent of external influences within the colonial experiences that it went through. So you had the Nazi Germany is going in at one point in time. You had, of course, the British and the history of opium and so forth. So it's a very egregious history. And when you look at it within the context of, say, the writings of people such as foreign advisers to Carter at the time, people like Przenski, who are national foreign advisers within the US, who spoke about Chinese containment, and then contrast that perhaps in a more progressive approach when we find Nixon, President Nixon, who then comes in under the advice of Henry Kissinger, who advises a more progressive approach to engaging China. That temperament has changed over the years. If we look at what Trump recently introduced with the trade war itself and the continuation of the Trump policy by Biden, what the position has been for China, if they look at it from a colonial disposition. So within a decolonial fashion, he echoed the sentiment saying external factors, external influences will not be tolerated in the context of that history. How perhaps it's received in the West, I think we have seen mixed messages. They have seen it perhaps more as a message of antagonizing because it is their belief that China has a world desires to further expand, to have an expansionist approach to its foreign policy. And yet China within President Xi's speech seems to deny that. It says that we have no ambitions to take over any inch or to influence or to further exterminate any nation or to threaten any nation. We seek peace and we seek peaceful engagement through the art of diplomacy, which seems to be very different to the global north's perception of what the current situation circumstances are as they currently are ongoing with the current conflict, the diplomatic conflict with China. Now over time, China seems to, I mean, this is something that you know pretty well. Africa seems to prefer China over other countries. And China has made its presence known in Africa in terms of finances, technology, and a lot more. Will you say that China has become some source of a threat to other countries that would really want to be in the position that it is right now in Africa? Well, I think what one would assume so considering that the next frontier economically is Africa, we have quite a huge amount of economic prospects unexploited. If you look at the three inflations that the global community is currently facing, which is strategic resources, inflation, water inflation, and equally food inflation, most of these are answered in Africa. And what China has been able to do post-2020 when it began to expand its external, its outlook in terms of its economic investment trajectory, its engagement with Africa and equally historic as well. If you look back as far as the early 70s, when they engaged Africa during its colonial experience, they were quite a big support system. This to most countries is seen as a threat within the context of the strategy that perhaps some would call the containment of China. Whereas in Africa, there is a welcoming of Chinese investment purely because it focuses on the fundamental aspects that are fundamental concerns that Africa has. Africa has a huge infrastructural gap. It intends to feel that it has to create a huge amount of employment in order to cater to its radically young population, which of course is a domestic concern to many nations. So as a consequence, it is imperative that partnerships that focus primarily on very critical issues such as infrastructural development are very much welcoming in Africa without perhaps the contingent structural adjusting and equally preaching of values approach which tend to be exacerbated by the West. Which of course is not to suggest that this is a bad thing, but I think from a pragmatic perspective, from within the context of diplomacy, Africa has chosen, well, predominantly has chosen China purely because of what it turns to be pragmatic diplomacy. Well, and looking at the future, how well do you think this relationship is going to last, especially with the skeptics, making references to the fact that China might come for Africa someday. And so to use the African palace, we should eat with China with a long spoon. What does the future hold between China and Africa relations? Well, I think it's pretty incumbent upon African policymakers whose duty it is to negotiate with a sense of shrewdness and understand who they're negotiating with. Well, in the words of Sun Tzu, know your enemy, or rather within a commercial context, would say know your opponent and know yourself and pick the certain. So it's much important that it's much more important and fundamental, especially for policymakers in Africa to have an approach that ensures that it's safeguarded their interests and as much as they intend to expand the infrastructure. So we have to have a measured approach, but equally understanding that the problems that the global economy may have within the context of diplomacy when these major economies fight against each other. This is not primarily our problem. It should add to our leverage rather than subtract from our own ambitions. We should utilize this as an opportunity for us to further negotiate more stringent, more shrewd deals that ensure that it capacitates us and it places our best foot forward in order to enhance our capacity and further expand our ability to be major players within the global economy. Farai Mavuti is of the Southern African Times and he's a senior analyst. Thank you very much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.