When U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to end trade talks with Canada, many Canadians felt a chill. And when Prime Minister Mark Carney hinted that Ottawa might “look east” toward China and other Asian markets for new trade opportunities, the comment raised eyebrows. Could Canada really shift its economic gaze away from Washington to Beijing?

It wouldn’t be the first country to try.

I grew up in a thriving mining and agricultural province in Zimbabwe, which, from the 1980s to early 2000s, produced commercial maize, wheat and tobacco, and hosted massive mining operations by Western companies such as Rio Tinto and Union Carbide. In the early 2000s, things took a turn for the worse.

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Almost overnight, Zimbabwe’s then-president

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