Still, tensions are growing. The Chinese government, historically wary of foreigners, has granted permanent residency to only a few thousand migrants in the last three decades. Sporadic roundups of illegal workers are on the rise. Friction between authorities and African merchants exploded into a riot last year in the southern city of Guangzhou after police were accused of harassment.

Reports the Guardian: "The red vinyl banner hanging from the front of Canaan market, a multi-storey wholesale emporium of cheap jeans and hair extensions, begins promisingly "Welcome to Guangzhou" and concludes, less warmly, "Please have your passport ready for checks by police". This southern city in China's Guangdong province has drawn hundreds of thousands of immigrants from across Africa in the last decade: from Burkina Faso and Somalia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, Tanzania and Angola. The banner and the dwindling numbers of traders here attest to an immigration crackdown that has alienated many and left young men injured and languishing in detention, community leaders say. "You go home: the police are knocking on your door. You are on the street: police will hold you. You are on the bus, inside a restaurant – it's everywhere," says Ojukwu Emma, president of the Association of the Nigerian Community, whose compatriots account for almost half the migrants. It has not always been this way. Between 30,000 and 100,000 Africans, mainly young men, are living here. Most are traders lured by the cheapness and variety of goods made in the surrounding Pearl River Delta. In complexes such as Canaan, they purchase nappies, tractor parts, luxuriantly floral shirts, stock cubes, mobile phones, air conditioners, and pirate DVDs. In the Chinese-run cafes around the buildings they eat plantains and fufu as well as rice.

GUANGZHOU'S LITTLE AFRICA
According to Life of Guangzhou: "Africans, Middle Easterners and Indian people tend to flock to different locations. Xiao Bei Road and the connecting western section of Huanshi Dong Road is their core locale, a convergence of office towers, lines of Islamic restaurants and residential blocks. Many people there are traders and the area is called the "Little Africa of Guangzhou.

"Many Africans, plus some Koreans, can also be found living and looking for business opportunities in the blocks around the leather wholesale markets on Jiefang Bei Road and the San Yuan Li Area, which is north of the GZ train station. Also, a large community of Middle Easterners lives around Zhongshan Ba Road, west of the Chen Clan Academy..."

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