In offering loans, China wants to boost its relationship with African governments, which goes back decades, to the time of Chairman Mao. In the 1950s and 1960s, the mainland poured millions of dollars into Africa to help liberation movements throw off colonial rule and enhance its international status at a time when Taiwan represented China at the United Nations. Wen was indeed eager to underscore the depth of that relationship.

“We will help Africa build up financing capacity,” Wen said. “We will provide US$10 billion in concessional loans to African countries.”

For some observers, the extraordinary leap taken by Sino-African economic relations—US$ 7.8 billion in direct investments alone in 2008—is making the West nervous.

European governments have accused Beijing of being interested only in Africa’s natural resources. China, for its part, has shot back at Europe, claiming that it treats Africa like a colony.

“The West is envious of China and Africa drawing closer,” popular Chinese tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party's People's Daily, wrote on Tuesday.

“Europeans view Africa as their own backyard," the newspaper quoted Chinese Africa expert Xu Weizhong as saying. "Of course they feel uncomfortable about the arrival of the Chinese."

“China's policy is based on mutual development. Few Western countries have a foreign policy like this—most are about telling Africans what to do,” said Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, executive director of the Africa programme at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.