Posted Jan. 7, 2007 – China , which has been working to strengthen trade with southern Africa, has pledged 5,000 metric tons of food to Zimbabwe , which is suffering a serious shortage of basic necessities.

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A deputy ambassador from the Communist nation said last week that China would like to increase trade with Zimbabwe to $500 million this year. A quarter of Zimbabwe ’s 3 million people would go hungry without food aid from the United Nations, the BBC News reports. In addition to dwindling supplies of food, petroleum and other essentials, Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation at 8,000 percent.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who liberated the country from the hands of a British dictator in 1980, has begun confiscating land from White property owners and redistributing it to poor Black farmers. He says that the Britain is trying to overthrow his government, and that White western nations are hoping to see his regime crumble because of his desire to empower his Black citizens.

Britain denies the charges, but a former general did acknowledge late last year that he had discussed invading Zimbabwe with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The United Nations blames the current food crisis on a poor harvest last year and the nation’s rapidly deteriorating economic situation. BBC reports that Deputy Chinese ambassador Ma Deyun promised that the food "will soon arrive.”

Speaking at a ceremony where 97 Chinese-made trucks were being delivered to the Zimbabwean government, she said,  "The Chinese people will be an equal, sincere and reliable friend... of the Zimbabwean people.”