The whole affair was orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was supposed to honour Chinese enterprises that made "contributions to the economic and social development of the African countries, fulfill their corporate social responsibility and help to improve the living standard of the people in Africa."

But at the awards ceremony, attended by a procession of retired Chinese vice foreign ministers, the most important criteria for the award seemed to be "promoting a positive image of China in Africa".

The 10 winners of the inaugural awards were almost all state-owned enterprises like China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, China Railway Group, China Road & Bridge Corporation and China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corporation.

And the bulk of the projects they have carried out in Africa appear to be Beijing-directed infrastructure projects offered in exchange for access to natural resources.

During the long-winded acceptance speeches one grateful recipient from a state-owned construction company decided to recount his time in Africa and told of his great pleasure at repeatedly being told by local people that Africans are actually "all black Chinese".

The award was decided through a mysterious process that supposedly included voting by 200m internet users.

However, the heavy hand of the "steering committee", led by the Foreign Ministry and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, was obvious after a cursory glance at the vote tallies.

Huge, well-known state enterprises like Petrochina, China Railway Construction Corp and ZTE were barely able to attract a few hundred votes from the public while virtually unknown companies like Touchroad Group and Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Group received well over 6m votes each.

Call it democracy with Chinese characteristics.

It turns out that the enterprises that won the award were expected to contribute to a new Rmb5m "China Enterprises' Charity Fund to Africa".

Through its charity work this fund's stated aim is to "further enhance the brand influence of the winner enterprises and expand friendly bonds between the enterprises and local [African] people".

It seems Beijing has a little way to go before it works out how best to improve its image in Africa.

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2010/12/22/china-making-friends-with-africa/