There is no doubt China is investing heavily in Africa for its own survival too. With its economy growing at a runaway speed in the past two decades, Chinas demand for raw materials is also growing exceedingly fast.

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Today, the country consumes a quarter

of the world's copper, 40% of its coal, 35% of its steel, 10% of its oil, and demands a staggering 94% of the global total of aluminum. It comes only second to the US, as the world's biggest consumer of oil. No wonder China has stepped up efforts to secure access to these resources, and where better to look than resource-rich Africa.

China is exploring and extracting copper and cobalt from Zambia and Congo. It is buying timber in Gabon, Cameroon, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia. It buys platinum and chrome from Zimbabwe; and iron ore, coal, nickel and aluminum from across the continent. Angola contributes half of the oil China buys from Africa. Indeed while endowed with every natural resource that sustain and oil the world today, Africa's riches have however mostly enriched the Western world to whose economic yoke the continent has been tethered since independence five decades ago--decades that have had little to show for in terms of economic development in Africa.

But now almost every African country bears testimony to China's economic presence, and it is making a difference. In very promising ways, China is helping to kick many African economies out of the doldrums by injecting "Chinese medicine" into their dry veins. For example, oilfields, mines, railways, roads, hospitals and schools. This is not re-colonisation, as many in the West allege. And the proof of how China is doing it in Africa is in the figures themselves. (Here is a snippet, left).

Apart from all this, China has also made agreements in the field of health which have facilitated the regular exchange of medical teams and training for medical professionals in Africa. China also provides medicine and medical equipment free of charge to several African countries, and has active programmes to help prevent and treat infectious diseases, including malaria and HIV/Aids. In recent years, China has sent over 15,000 doctors to more than 47 African countries.

Therefore, while the majority of Africans have for decades lived with the discrepancies between what Western economic aid reforms say and what they actually do, China is proving different--putting money where its mouth is, without placing austere conditions that come with Western "help".

Africa has indeed not seen such inward flows of trade, investment or cheap credit, as in the above volumes, in its post-independence years. And because China is going where no Western investors or aid have dared to go, it is now well ahead in the queue for Africa's must-have resources. But the bonus is in the fact that China is making Africa an integral part of its own economic development:

"China will assist African countries to seek economic independence, broaden the spheres of bilateral cooperation and strive to realise the goal of mutual benefit and common prosperity," says China's commerce minister, Bo Xilai.

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President Hu Jintao visited 17 African states in 2006-2007. No other foreign head of state has done this before.

In the first 10 months of 2007 China's exports to Africa rose by 36%, while imports from Africa surged 81%.

In 2005, total trade between Africa and China was $40bn and is expected to reach $100bn by 2010.

Africa now supplies a third of China's crude oil imports.

In January 2005, Angola was offered an oil-backed $2bn loan from China to repair its infrastructure. A further $1bn was added a year later.

In July 2005, China and Nigeria signed an $800m crude oil sale deal between Petrochina International and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to supply 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day to China.

China is also in $4bn deal for drilling licences in Nigeria, including grants for economic and technical cooperation in anti-malarial medicine and rice production.

In April 2006, the Algerian government awarded contracts estimated at $7bn billion to Chinese and Japanese consortiums to build parts of a 1,300km highway running from Tunisia to Morocco.

When he concluded his African tour in April 2006, President Hu wrapped it up with an offshore exploration deal with Kenya, which allowed China National Offshore Oil Corporation to explore in six blocks covering 115,343 sq km in the north and south of Kenya.

In June 2006, China announced $20m debt relief in Senegal where it also promised to invest $35m into building West Africa's biggest theatre in the country, to promote African art.

By November 2006, China and Africa had signed 16 agreements worth a total of $1.9bn. The deals, between 12 Chinese firms and 11 African governments and companies, followed President Hu's pledge to offer $5bn in loans and credit and to double aid by 2009.