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INTRODUCTION 
 
Indeed, Chinese economic growth has averaged 9.5% annually over the past two decades. Between 1980 and 2000, Chinese GDP rose from Rmb 451.8 billion to Rmb 8,946.8 trillion, an increase of 1880.2%.1 In addition to that, during the same period, real per capita income rose by more than 400%.2 As a result, in 2006 China became the world‟s fourth largest economy, surpassing France and Britain.3 This formidable economic growth saw the number of people living in extreme poverty in China decline by 220 million between 1978 and 1999.4 
 
Despite this strong economic growth, China is still a developing country, since there are as many as 200 million unemployed or underemployed people in the countryside.5 Moreover, the number of Chinese living below the poverty line (less than one dollar a day) was estimated between 120 to 130 million in 2006.6Given that poverty and unemployment are still rampant in China, the main priority for the Chinese leadership is to maintain the robust economic growth at least over the next two decades in a bid to drastically reduce poverty and unemployment in China.7In order to maintain its robust economic growth, China desperately needs access not only to raw materials such as oil and minerals but also to markets for its manufactured goods.  

1.1 CHINA IN AFRICA  
In light of the three main objectives of China‟s foreign policy mentioned above, it is clear that Africa is of vital importance in the eyes of Chinese policy makers. Firstly, since Africa possesses huge amounts of unexploited raw materials such as oil, copper, cobalt, timber and others, it is perceived as a strategic continent by Chinese policy makers.15 Although China is interested in a variety of raw materials, priority is given to the exploitation of oil.16 Various Chinese leaders have devoted their energy to the oil business with Africa and in the process accelerated the establishment of Chinese oil companies in Africa.17In fact, Chinese state owned oil companies such as China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have invested US$ billions in the acquisition of oil blocks in Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, Gabon and Libya.18Besides the oil sector, Chinese companies have also invested US$ hundreds of millions in the mining sector in countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).19 
 
As mentioned already, Africa is also important to China as it represents an important market for Chinese manufactured goods. Although far from wealthy, many African consumers are increasingly able to afford Chinese manufactured goods as these are relatively cheaper compared to European or United States of America (US) manufactured goods.20  

TABLE OF CONTENTS  
 
 
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