China's helpful role in the new world order

Last December, a full seven years after the last summit of EU and African leaders held in Cairo in 2000, the long postponed EU-Africa summit finally took place again in Lisbon.

Europe is Africa's single largest trading partner, so you might imagine such get-togethers are fairly important and ought to occur frequently. But the real trigger behind this delayed meeting was China.

In November 2006, Beijing hosted a lavish Forum for China-Africa Cooperation which set pundits' tongues wagging in the West. China is now variously portrayed either as an economic competitor in Africa, or as its oppressor.