The South African Institute of International Affairs published in December 2021 a policy briefing titled "China-Driven Coal Power: Lessons from Zimbabwe and Indonesia" by Xue Gong and Cobus van Staden.
The paper compares Chinese funded and built coal electricity projects in Indonesia and Zimbabwe. Whereas Indonesia has managed to limit the environmental impacts of coal electricity to some extent, the same is not true for Zimbabwe. The technology and mitigation measures were much more advanced in Indonesia than in Zimbabwe. Nor was socio-economic mitigation high on the agenda in the case of Zimbabwe. Chinese firms in Zimbabwe seemed to respond to low levels of Zimbabwe government standard setting and high levels of secrecy.
