China boosts African Economies, offering a 'second opportunity': Trade between China and Africa reached a record $55 billion last year, much of it coming from oil and metals.
The Christian Science Monitor
By Danna Harman

This article caught my attention. Get this:

Sudan's experience is hardly unique. There is more trade going on today between China and Africa than ever before. In the late 1980s, trade between the country and the continent was $12 million. Last year, according to official Chinese figures, it reached a record $55 billion. In 1991, Chinese direct investment in Africa was less than $5 million a year. In 2006 – China's official "Year of Africa" – it reached $1.25 billion, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Sudan is the No. 1 recipient of that investment.

"The Chinese have big machines and factories and they work day and night ... and at the end of the day this means we can go shopping," says Jacob Marial, a rebel-leader-turned-bicycle repairman in Rumbek. "My wife likes green tea toothpaste."