From Prof Avinash Persaud.

Sir, You report that the big story is that Hu Jintao, China's president, faced rising criticism from the west over China's loans to Africa as he began his Africa tour ("Hu criticised for Africa loan deals" and "Hu urges Sudan to act on Darfur crisis", February 3). It is hard to find reliable data, but I estimate that Chinese loans to Africa in recent years to be in the region of $10bn per year and focused on building energy infrastructure.