By Tichaona Chifamba

    HARARE, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's biggest lesson to Zimbabwe is that a country can only prosper if political unity, peace and stability prevail within the country, Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Patrick Chinamasa said on Saturday.

    "The lessons that Zimbabwe can learn from the new China are, first, political unity is a prerequisite to development. In other words, you need peace and stability in a country before you can economically recover.

    "The second lesson is that with unity is the foundation for economic and technological development, and that is what I think we are going to learn as a country from China," Chinamasa told Xinhua on the occasion to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the new China.

    On relations between China and Zimbabwe, Chinamasa said the ties are excellent. However, he wanted to see more work to be done to consolidate economic and cultural relations.

    "At the moment the relations between China and Zimbabwe are excellent. But they are mainly in the political field. I would want to see these deepen into cultural, economic and social areas. I think we need to work very hard to develop our economic relations. We need to develop trade between the People's Republic of China and Zimbabwe. We need to encourage mutual investments in each other's country. That is what is needed."

    Chinamasa also thanked China and Russia for vetoing attempts by Western countries last year to impose full-scale economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.

    "Without China and without Russia, you know, Zimbabwe would not be a free country. We are what we are, we were able to liberate our country through the military assistance that we received from China and Russia. So I am very happy and I want to thank the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation for standing by us during our hour of need. Without that support we would have been worse off than we are at the moment. So I want to encourage a deeper relationship in the political, economic, social and cultural fields between our countries," he said.

    China and Russia refused to support the attempt to have the United Nations Security Council slam sanctions on Zimbabwe, insisting that Africa should first deal with the matter through the Southern African Development Community and the African Union.

    The minister extended a message to the Chinese people ahead of their National Day. "To the Chinese people on the 60th anniversary of their revolution, I say congratulations. I would like to urge you to remain a united people, to remain a united people and to fight against colonialism and imperialism."

    "I urge you to keep and maintain your work ethic which has given ground to the industrial revolution that is taking place in China," he said.

Special Report: 60th Anniversary of Founding of PRC