An Yue Jiang (Chinese: 安岳江, Hanyu Pinyin: Ān Yuè Jiāng) is a People's Republic of China container vessel operated by the state-run shipping firm COSCO.

[4][5] The issue compounded the dissatisfaction felt by many critics of the Zimbabwean government regarding South Africa's nonconfrontational approach to dealing with Mugabe, exemplified by Mbeki's claim that the post-election situation was not a crisis.

[8] On 21 April, Zambian President Mwanawasa appealed to SADC governments to forbid entry to the ship, expressing concern that the arms would increase tension in Zimbabwe.

[10] Jiang Yu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on 22 April that the ship might be forced to turn back due to its failure to find a place to unload the shipment.

She asserted that the shipment involved only "perfectly normal trade in military goods between China and Zimbabwe", with no connection to the events surrounding the election, and that the contract for it had been signed in 2007.

[12] The United States requested that countries in the region not accept the ship, and it asked China "to refrain from making additional shipments and, if possible, to bring this one back".

[13] Matonga declined to comment on this, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry described the reports as "baseless and purely fictitious" on 21 May, saying that the An Yue Jiang was returning to China with the arms still on board.