Is China annexing Africa?

Beijing is upping the ante in its trade relations with Africa - most recently pouring cash into the Congo. Tim Bennett finds out why Beijing's so interested in Africa - and suggests three ways to profit from the boom.

What is China up to in Africa?

The latest project to hit the headlines is a $5bn offer from the Chinese government to fund roads, railways, hospitals and clinics in the Congo. Elsewhere, China is already "the biggest investor in the Sudan", says the Seattle Times, while in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, office blocks, the military headquarters and a refurbished stadium are all the work of planners from Beijing. In Uganda, Chinese money built the new State House, while in Zambia an "economic partnership zone" that will attract $800m in investment was promised by the Chinese president on a recent state visit. Even Zimbabwe's international pariah Robert Mugabe has declared, "We have turned east, where the sun rises and given our backs to the West", perhaps grateful for Chinese assistance in cultivating crops on land seized from white farmers. Sino-African trade hit a new high of $55.5bn last year, up 40% from the year before. In short, as Granta magazine puts it, "the Chinese are everywhere".

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.