pngwerume, for your information, there's a nice article about Chinese fighter serving abroad:战绩辉煌却鲜为人知:中国战机海外服役全史
----Brilliant success but little recognized: full history of Chinese war plane serving abroad
You can find it online here:
This article was published in a well respected Chinese magazine 国际展望----international view. Actually the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin hand wrote the title of this magazine. There's a part about Zimbabwe:
津巴布韦
1986年,津巴布韦空军接收了14架歼一7战斗机,组成了第5战斗机中队,代号“箭”。这14架歼一7包括12架歼一7II及歼一7IIN,以及2架歼教一7BZ。最初,这些歼-7主要由巴基斯坦飞行员驾驶,不久之后,津巴布韦空军就培养出了足够多有经验的飞行员,全面接替了巴基斯坦人。
1998年,津巴布韦卷入了民主刚果共和国(刚果(金))内战,其陆军和空军战斗机参与了与民主刚果反政府军的作战。在战斗中歼一7的表现相当活跃。
目前大约有6架歼一7在津巴布韦空军中服役,现在津巴布韦人急需要得到一种新的战斗机,而外界观察家普遍认为价格低廉但性能出色的JF-17很有可能赢得这笔合同。
当前津巴布韦与巴基斯坦的关系密切,2005年7月16—20日,巴基斯坦空军总参谋长卡利姆-萨达特上将刚刚对津巴布韦进行了为期5天的访问,在这次访问中,萨达特表示要继续支援津巴布韦空军建设,包括向后者提供训练设备,并派出军官和技术人员以帮助训练津巴布韦飞行员和机械师。结合两个月前,巴基斯坦总理对马来西亚访问时表示将向后者提供JF—17样机以便后者评估的消息来看,萨达特上将的这次访问很有可能是为了向津巴布韦推荐JF-17。
Let me translate it for you:
Zimbabwe
In 1986, Zimbabwe Air Force recieved 14 J-7s and formed the 5th Fighter Squadron, code-named "Arrow." This includes 12 J-7II and J-7IIN, plus 2 TJ-7BZ. Initially, these J-7 fighters were manned by Pakistani pilots. Shortly afterwards, Zimbabwe Air Force trained a sufficient number of experienced pilots to take over the Pakistanis.
In 1998, Zimbabwe involved in the civil war of Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo (Kinshasa)). Her Army and Air Force fighters participated in the combats together with Congo(Kinshasa)'s anti-government force. J-7s were very active.
At present, there are approximately 6 J-7s serving in the Air Force of Zimbabwe, who urgently need a new type of fighters. Outside observers generally believe the JF-17 with low price and excellent performance is very likely to win the contract.
At present, Zimbabwe and Pakistan have very close relationship. During July 16-20 2005, Pakistan Air Force chief Karim Sadat had a five-day visit to Zimbabwe. During his visit, Sadat said they would continue to support the building of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, including the provision of training equipment and sending officers and technicians to help in training Zimbabwe personnels. Considering Pakistani Prime Minister's visit to Malaysia two months ago (that is June 2005----szbd), when he announced Pakistan will provide the JF-17 prototype for evaluation, General Sadat's visit to Zimbabwe is likely for marketing JF-17.