Each year, thousands of containers are shipped to Dakar, Mombasa, Abidjan and Doula, growing by 294 per cent between 2003 and 2007. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao estimated bilateral trade in 2008 at $106.8-billion, up 45 per cent from 2007.

“Almost 90 per cent of goods in African markets come from China, Thailand and Indonesia,” said Sultane Barry, president of Guangzhou’s Guinean community. He runs an entire floor of a 35-storey tower crammed with shops bursting with factory samples, representative offices, freight-forwarding companies, legal and illegal African restaurants, hairdressers and furnished apartments let by the week.

A new transnational African business class may be emerging, which could flood sub-Saharan Africa with low-cost products from China. “China is trying to keep things at government level,” said Mr. Barry, “but the Chinese people will soon realize that it’s better for business to deal directly with ordinary Africans.” China would prefer Africans to do business with China without living here, yet 90 per cent of Guangzhou’s Africans act as intermediaries between the African continent and Chinese factories.

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