To gauge the importance of the main guest at next week’s summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh one need only look at the number of African dignitaries there to greet him — far more than ever attend meetings of the African Union.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, is to meet more than 50 African leaders and foreign and finance ministers to cement his country’s place as Africa’s most important friend.

The gathering illustrates the continent’s rapidly changing global relationships: driven largely by China’s voracious demand for minerals and energy to fuel its economic expansion, barely a week now passes without Beijing signing a multimillion-pound bilateral agreement with an African country.

This week it was the turn of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where China plans to build roads and railways in return for copper and cobalt concessions in a deal worth an estimated $3 billion (£2.5 billion).

Last month Guinea received a $7 billion lifeline — an investment in its mining sector — just as Western countries were cutting ties after the massacre of 150 opposition supporters.

Such actions have attracted criticism from human rights activists, who accuse China of supporting oppressive regimes such as Sudan, where Chinese weapons bought with money from oil sales were used to fight the rebellion in Darfur.

Most in Africa see it as a “win-win” relationship. “The Chinese are here to invest, and in today’s world all investors are good news,” Emmanuel Ole Naiko, of the Tanzania Investment Centre, said. “China is going to be a very important country in years to come. They do not just take. They build infrastructure and are constant. They are good friends and good investors.”

Three years ago, at the first China-Africa summit in Beijing, Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, put $5 billion on the table in the shape of loans and credit. At the summit tomorrow and on Monday, hosted by Egypt’s President Mubarak, China is expected to offer more than double that.

Last year, despite the world recession, China-Africa trade leapt to $107 billion — a rise of 45 per cent in one year and even beating African trade with the US. Direct Chinese investment in Africa grew from $491 million in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2008. The results are visible everywhere. Chinese workers are building roads, ports, dams, railways, football stadiums, hotels and office blocks.

China angrily rebuts suggestions that it wants a neocolonial-style expansion but knows that it can count on the votes of African states whenever it faces possible censure over human rights abuses at home or controversial issues such as Tibet. The Vice-Minister of Commerce, Chen Jian, said this week: “China’s aid to Africa is based on Africa’s needs without imposing any political pre-conditions.”

It is a message of assistance without strings attached that goes down well with Africa’s leaders.

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