If the Beijing Olympics had a race for Africa, hosts China would surely be a gold medal contender.

In five years, trade between the continent and China leapt from 11 billion dollars to 56 billion dollars in 2006.

China is sucking up Africa’s rich mineral and oil resources at an astonishing rate: Angola alone now provides nearly 20 per cent of China’s oil, with Nigeria not far behind.

Out of the 54 countries that make up the African continent, China has business interests in 48 of them.

Billions of dollars are flowing into African countries in the form of aid as well as loans to build vital infrastructure like hospitals, schools and roads.

There’s nothing new in that, of course; the Tanzania-Zambia railway was built by Chinese hands in the 1970s when Western governments weren’t interested in building in Africa.

But the acceleration of Beijing’s drive across the continent and the mushrooming of loans with so many countries are causing alarm at bodies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Their concerns are justified, but only up to a point.

Chinese loans come with no real strings attached over issues like import tariffs and environmental impact, so African nations know their creditors are good for the money.

But the lack of scrutiny has grave implications for human rights.

With such huge interests in Sudan, China could and should intervene over the massacres in Darfur.

Instead, it’s not only selling weapons to the Sudanese government, but vetoing any kind of UN action.

And yet you can’t help smelling the whiff of sour grapes from the World Bank and IMF.

They’ve had it too good for years, tying up loans to impoverished African nations at hefty rates of interest.

It must irk them to see those countries now finding an alternative source of finance in China, often at rates as low as two per cent.

But at a time when the world has reached a consensus on writing off at least 50 billion dollars of African debt, China’s give with one hand and take with the other approach smacks of a throwback to the exploitative practices of the old colonial powers.