The Tug of War For Zambia Continues

Geopolitically, two great powers compete for hegemony and leverage across the globe. For more than half a century, the United States and China have been locked in a widening contest for dominance in nearly every critical sphere of international life. The West-versus-East rivalry saturates the major geopolitical events of our time. What may appear remote or peripheral often carries deeper implications in this two-horse race. Zambia's long, uneasy dual policy is a clear case in point. ## Two embassies in five days Historically, the United States established diplomatic relations with Zambia on the day of independence, formally recognizing the new republic on 24 October 1964 when its existing consulate in Lusaka was elevated to a full embassy. China followed only five days later, on 29 October 1964, making Beijing one of the earliest to recognize the independent state and Zambia the first country in Southern Africa to establish ties with the People's Republic. ## TAZARA and the all-weather friendship That rivalry became concrete in Zambia's foreign policy in the early 1970s with the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway. The project gave rise to the celebrated "all-weather friendship" between China and Zambia. It came at a moment of acute vulnerability: sanctions against Rhodesia after its Unilateral Declaration of Independence had severed Zambia's traditional southern transport routes, producing an oil crisis and forcing expensive overland alternatives through Tanzania. Western governments declined to finance a new railway as economically unjustifiable, partly, many observers believe, because of President Kenneth Kaunda's vocal support for liberation movements and his opposition to white-minority rule in southern Africa. China stepped in. Between 1970 and 1975 the TAZARA railway was built as a turnkey project financed by an interest-free loan, providing an early and dramatic illustration of how global competition could shape the foreign policy of a small Sout