BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Over the past two weeks, Beijing has become a hotspot for news about China as hundreds of foreign journalists rush into the Great Hall of the People, where the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, is convening its annual full session.

    Despite all of the exciting new legislation that has been announced by the NPC, many are still turning their heads thousands of miles away to Africa.

    In the recent news conferences held on the sidelines of the parliamentary session, Chinese foreign and commerce ministers were both asked about China's so-called "neo-colonialist" approach to African countries, and its "growing thirst" for Africa's resources-- especially oil.

    "Statistics show China's share of Africa's total oil exports last year only stood at around 9 percent, compared with 36 percent for Europe and 33 percent for the United States," said Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai at a news conference this week.

    "If an 8.7 percent share could be suspected as an act of plundering resources, then what about 36 percent and 33 percent?" asked the minister.

    The accusations of "China's neo-colonialism in Africa" sound very discordant with the reality that China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has entered a period of robust growth, particularly since the Sino-African summit late last year. Chinese President Hu Jintao's African tour last month further fueled such growth.

    Many people in China found it ironic that the critical voices against the current China-Africa relations were mostly from some Western nations, which are former colonial powers. The colonialist tendencies of these nations, they say, are actually the primary source of many of Africa's problems today.

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