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As China's economic and political influence grows in Africa, it is unclear who is the winner and who the loser in the relationship, writes Mary Fitzgerald

'NI HAO, NI HAO," yell the Zambian schoolchildren, as they spot a visitor walking past the scrubby patch of earth where they are skipping in a circle. These are the expansive grounds of the Sino-Zam Friendship Hospital in Kitwe, one of the main towns in the dusty copper belt of northern Zambia. The Mandarin greeting can also be heard echoing through the spotless corridors of the main building where Chinese men, grimy from working in the nearby Chinese-owned mine, queue for treatment alongside local women who chatter loudly as they bounce babies on their laps. A sign directs patients to the acupuncture section. In one room hung with Chinese medical charts, Zhang Shuzeng, a gynaecologist from Hunan province, struggles to piece her sparse English together. She came to Zambia to seek a new life after her son left for university two years ago. "It's an adventure," she smiles.