In what is possibly the largest gathering of African leaders ever in the Asian continent, over forty Presidents and Prime Ministers from Africa are expected to converge in Beijing the Chinese capital for this weekend's China - Africa Forum.

The gathering is a formal occasion to mark the rapidly increasing volume of trade between Africa and China and will provide an opportunity to negotiate future trade deals between China and the continent.

Leaders who are confirmed as having arrived in Beijing include Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia) and John Kufour (Ghana). In a move that has some political significance the Chinese government also extended invitations to the five African countries that recognise Taiwan; Gambia, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Swaziland and Sao Tome and Principe. However none of these countries have sent any representation to the forum.

As China's economy has grown, trade between Africa and China has increased significantly averaging increases of about 20% per year for the last few years. The trade is marked primarily by China's demand for manufacturing raw materials and energy resources; in turn this has led to a number of high profile deals across the continent.

In April China secured the right of first refusal on four oil prospecting blocs in Nigeria for its national oil firm, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), in exchange for investment in one of the country's main refineries, upgrading the railway system and building a number of power stations.

In June China won sole rights to exploit iron ore reserves in Gabon in a joint venture with the Gabonese government beating out a rival bid from a Brazilian consortium. The deal is said to include the construction of 200km railway line, a deep water port and a hydroelectric dam by the Chinese at a total cost of $600m.

In March Angola became China's main oil supplier shipping 2.12 million tons of crude oil that month beating Saudi Arabia into second place, and China has becomingly heavily involved in the massive reconstruction work in Angola in the aftermath of the civil war including the construction of a 240,000 barrel per day refinery in the port of Lobito on Angola's west coast.

These deals have not been without controversy, in the late 90's China invested close to $15 billion through state oil company, the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), in Sudan. CNPC now earns almost half its revenue for oil exports form Sudan. However the ongoing civil strife in Sudan has meant that China also supplied the Sudanese government with military hardware to protect it investments, which in turn have been used to prosecute wars in Darfur and Southern Sudan.

Equally of concern to commentators are that Chinese investments rarely yield jobs for the local populace, as in addition to having vast capital reserves at its disposal China also has a vast labour pool and a lot of projects China invests in are prosecuted with an almost entirely Chinese workforce. In building a 900 mile pipeline in Sudan, China imported a 10,000 strong workforce to do the job.

Where local workers are employed there have been issues with the employment practices of the Chinese owners, recent riots in a Chinese owned copper mine which resulted in several Zambians being shot dead being an example of less than exemplary Chinese labour policies.

Observers are also worried that Africa's rekindled love for the export of basic commodities will eventually hurt it as it did when commodity prices collapsed in the 1970s and 80s. African economies need to diversify and to start adding value to their exports. To do so would mean engaging in light and low technology manufacturing, a market that China (and India) currently dominate and put them at odds economically with their new found trade benefactor.

Is China bad for Africa? Not necessarily the onus is on African leaders to ensure that trade deals provide their countries with short- and long- term trade benefits. If they achieve this then a mutually beneficial relationship can be built, otherwise we might be seeing just a new scramble for Africa.