President Hu Jintao with President Hifikepunye Pohamba during his visit to Namibia in February 2007.

African leaders, however, chose not to respond, of course, with the exception of Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu who this week urged China to “enter into a substantive and meaningful dialogue with this man of peace [the Dalai Lama].”
The explanation of African leaders' quietness can be found in what said the President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, said: Just as with China, Africa respects the sovereignty of other states.
In a personal opinion in one African journal on China's trade relations with Africa, President Wade said that while the issues of human rights, democracy and good governance are of supreme importance, they ought not determine trade relations, as the Western world demands. This is because of the respect of each country's sovereignty.
This also explains Africa's cosiness trade relationship with China. When President Hu Jintao arrived in Africa in February last year, he was not only on the continent to strengthen relations, but was also on a shopping spree. Jintao laid the foundation for a N$600 million spending spree, in Namibia alone, by signing a list of memorandum of understanding and offered interest free and soft loans to the government.
Two months later, the deputy minister of commerce, Gao Hucheng, jetted into Namibia on a N$600 million shopping spree. He bought manganese ore, copper blister, marbles, cattle hides, fish and fish products, all at once in the three days he was in the country.