His Excellency, Zhong Jianhua, China's ambassador to South Africa, takes the questions from China.org.cn. [Maverick Chen / China.org.cn]

South African President Jacob Zuma has recognized China's positive role in bringing about these new developments.

In a speech at Renmin University in Beijing last year, Zuma said China had "contributed to African development through trade and investment, as well as in directly helping African governments. Chinese assistance in infrastructure development in some of the less developed parts of Africa is certainly making an important contribution to future African development."

China only accounts for a little more than 10 percent of all African crude oil exports. Europe and the U.S. each claims more than 30 percent. China buys Africa's oil at fair market prices, and the amount is far less than the West, said Zhong.

The inexpensive merchandise that China exports to Africa gives the local people more choices, Zhong said. They are no longer confined to buying pricey goods manufactured in Europe or the U.S.. China's exports give Africans more buying power, he said, and "are by no means dumping,"

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway is another example of China's friendship with Africa. During Apartheid, the line helped Zambia export its rich copper resources via Tanzania, bypassing South Africa.

With the railway supporting its copper exports, Zambia began to support the revolution against South Africa's segregation, including funding South African's revolutionary leaders in exile in Lusaka, such as Oliver Tambo and his two assistants, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, who both later became presidents of new South African.

In the 1960s, Tanzania and Zambia did not turn to China for assistance until their request was turned down by the U.S. and the Europe. More than 100 Chinese engineers and construction workers dedicated their lives to building the railway.

"When Africa turned to their former colonial masters for help, they said no. But they now call China neo-colonialist, and it is absurd," Zhong said.