Zambian President Rupiah Banda arrived in China for a state visit, on the heels of Zimbabwean and South African foreign ministers, which signals China's increasing role in Africa and a deepening friendship between the continent and China.

Xu Weizhong, an African studies expert with China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank, said "such intensive visits indicate that Africa attaches greater importance to China-Africa relationship."

Tanzanian Ambassador to China Omar Ramadhan Mapuri said these exchanges had played and would continue to play a crucial role in the strengthening of China-Africa relations, cooperation and friendship.

In response to recent western media reports accusing China of impairing Africa's development, Mapuri said such criticism "is unfounded."

"It's not true that China's engagement in Africa has hampered Africa's development. On the contrary, China's active participation in the improvement of infrastructure in Africa since the mid-1990s has helped stimulate Africa's economic growth," he said.

China fulfilled its commitment to increase investment in Africa despite the global economic downturn. According to a statement posted on the Ministry of Commerce's website, Chinese non-financial direct investment in Africa reached 875 million U.S. dollars during the first nine months of last year, up 77.5 percent year on year.

During the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in November last year, China pledged 10-billion-U.S.- dollar new preferential loans to Africa over the next three years. It also promised to eliminate tariffs on 60 percent of exports and to write off the debt of several countries.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda, who is in China on his first state visit to the country, expressed sincere thanks to the Chinese government as not a single Chinese funded company in his country laid off Zambian workers during the recent economic turmoil.

Liu Naiya, a senior researcher with the Western Asia and Africa Studies Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said "China's growing presence in Africa threatens western countries' interests, which makes them uneasy and causes them to accuse China of plundering Africa's natural resources."

However, in fact, U.S. imports more oil and minerals from Africa than China. Oil accounted for 88 percent of U.S. imports from Africa in 2008, compared with 62 percent of China's imports.

Mapuri noted that most of those who criticized China-Africa relations were the very same ardent advocates of competition. He said he wondered why they were now wasting their time complaining and criticizing instead of competing.

Africa has never closed its doors to its traditional partners and everyone has a chance, he said.

"China is not merely coming for Africa's natural resources, but also brings advanced technology to it, generates jobs and stimulates the local economy," Liu Naiya said.

China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co. (CNMM), one of the first Chinese companies that invested in Zambia, has provided 6,500 jobs for Zambian people and paid 50 million U.S. dollars in taxes as of 2009, said CNMM's general manager Luo Tao.

China has always attached great importance to the China-Africa relationship and it would continue to work closely with African countries in various areas to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes, Xu Weizhong said.