Interview: China sets up example for Africans to create miracle through self-reliance

"Africans had been given the perception that you cannot hope, you are mired in poverty, debt ridden, underdevelopment is your lot, your schools cannot match those of developed countries and you need charity from the West in order to make progress," he said.

He added that China had changed that perception and instead of being "Afro-pessimists", people were filled with the hope that they could seize the future and make it theirs.

"You can seize the future for yourself and do something about your present condition so that you can also become a modern state."

Mutsvangwa noted 30 to 40 years ago, China was a very poor country, with most people surviving on less than one U.S. dollar a day. He said while there were still some people in China still living under those conditions, a lot of effort had been made to improve their lot.

"There is so much going on in terms of changing and improving people's lives. Not only in big cities, but even in rural areas people are in charge of their future, people are changing their future, which is a very good thing because we Africans would like to do the same."

From being a poor country, China had now become a big exporter of capital.

He marveled at the transformation of people's lives, where the young Chinese were saying that they wanted a China which was different from that lived by their parents.