ABSTRACT
The meeting in November 2006 of 48 African leaders gathered in Beijing, together with their Chinese hosts, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, to inaugurate the 3 rd Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) marked the zenith of Sino-African cooperation. It followed the dramatically intensified political and economic interactions between China and African countries. Figures on trade, aid and investment are increasing rapidly and political ties are growing stronger, as are personal ties between the political elites of China and Africa. This relationship is of immense significance for Africa's political and economic development; and naturally, both media and scholarly attention on the topic is growing.
