just business

I don’t think the arms shipment to Zimbabwe reported in today’s Guardian is specifically to enable Mugabe to put down the opposition - on that score I'd be looking out for stuff like this – mortars aren’t generally used for riot control, but along with RPG’s and AK47 ammo are typical third world military kit. It’s more like business as usual:

According to the Congressional Research Service, Chinese exports to Africa made up 10 percent of total conventional arms transfers to Africa between 1996 and 2003.

While Ethiopia and Eritrea were edging toward war, Chinese corporations transferred a substantial share of US$1 billion in weapons dispatched to both countries between 1998 and 2000. In 1995 a Chinese ship carrying 152 tons of ammunition and light weapons was refused permission to unload in Tanzania as the cargo was destined for the Tutsi-dominated army of Burundi (Agence France-Presse, May 3, 1995). And at least thirteen covert shipments of weapons by China were delivered to Dar-es-Salaam, with the final destinations mislabeled and the weapons disguised as agricultural equipment. These were almost certainly destined for the war-torn Great Lakes region (Overseas Development Institute, May 1998).

More recently, Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe ordered 12 FC1 fighter jets from China as well as 100 military vehicles in late 2004, China’s most advanced military aircraft order from an African nation that was worth $200 million.

Any would-be dictators who fancy buying some Chinese weapons can go here. NORINCO also make sporting goods, some of which – including clay pigeons – will be used at the Olympics.