CHINA:President Hu Jintao is buying his way through a tour of eight African countries with aid and interest-free loans, writes Clifford Coonan
The growing trade links between China and Africa take many forms: Chinese-built football stadiums in Zambia; transport ships heading to Tianjin laden with lumber and tobacco from Zimbabwe; sesame seeds from Ethiopia; and people using Chinese-brand mobile phones in Windhoek. In Tanzania's Dar-es-Salaam, local youths hunt prized monitor lizards for Chinese workers on building sites.
President Hu Jintao is now leading a mission to earn Africa's affection by bombarding it with aid and trade links. Mr Hu is visiting eight countries, including war-torn Sudan, and the Chinese say the trip is "another major diplomatic move", although some critics say its growing influence in Africa is merely a new form of colonialism.
China needs Africa's energy and resources to fuel its economic boom and the current high-profile visit is the result. Mr Hu is being accompanied by commerce minister Bo Xilai, foreign minister Li Zhaoxing and other high-ranking policy-makers.
The visit follows a major African summit in Beijing in November, where China was at pains to show it was interested in more than just Africa's abundance of natural resources. It wants to be a political force in Africa, just as it is an economic power to be reckoned with. This week, China said it would lend African states more than €2 billion over the next three years and double the amount of aid and interest-free loans.
Crucially, the Chinese said the loans had no strings attached, containing none of the "political conditions" often sought by western nations.
There is a lot to play for. According to China's deputy commerce minister Wei Jianguo, trade between China and Africa last year amounted to €43 billion, a jump of more than 40 per cent - the fifth consecutive year in which growth has exceeded 30 per cent.
The Chinese want Africa's abundance of natural resources, as well as textiles, clothing, furniture, and their shopping list includes South African diamonds, Egyptian marble, Ugandan coffee and Gabonese hardwood.
China's growing influence in Africa is being watched with some alarm by western mining groups, who fear being frozen out of a continent rich in resources because Washington and Brussels are not paying the same attention as the cash-rich Communist government in Beijing.
For their part, African consumers are keen to buy home electronics and mobile phones, and new cars produced by China's growing domestic auto industry.
South Africa is an example of how close relations have become. Arriving at Johannesburg airport, Mr Hu was spirited away to Pretoria to meet President Thabo Mbeki and sign a hefty wad of bilateral deals. China is now South Africa's second-largest import trading partner and eighth-largest export partner.
However, no matter how close the relationship with Africa, there are teething troubles and growing tensions. Chinese oil workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria, including nine who were abducted in January and released this month.
China has enthusiastically built economic ties with some of the continent's worst human rights offenders, such as Sudan, earning it widespread international criticism.
Zambian elections saw serious criticism of China's investment policy, which was blamed for job losses and factory closures. Blame for the woes of the South African textile industry has also been laid at the door of the Chinese.
Many African leaders, such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, enjoy being treated as equals by the Chinese, rather than as the political pariahs they are seen as in the West.
Human rights groups have complained that Mr Hu did not confront President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on human rights abuses and mass killings in Darfur. They say China's secret arms exports to Sudan are fuelling human rights violations and helping to sustain conflict there.
However, anyone familiar with the Beijing government's view on human rights issues - they are a sacrosanct domestic issue and no one else's business - can hardly be surprised this was not on the agenda. The Beijing government believes the Darfur issue will be resolved by international negotiation.