Ties between South Africa and China have been steadily growing. Trade between the two has more than doubled in four years. CGTN's Angelo Coppola has more.

The relationship between the two countries is a little lob-sided, because of the huge difference in the size of the two economies. But it's moved to the next level when China adopted a different approach to its involvement in Africa.

DR. COBUS VAN STADEN, SENIOR RESEARCHER CHINA-AFRICA PROGRAM, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INT'L AFFAIRS "South Africa was one of the places where China really started diversifying their engagement with Africa beyond issues around resource extraction. So the big investment in South African banking, that dates back quite a long while, was the first sign that South Africa was going to be a place where China spreads the kinds of business that it does in Africa, beyond simple resource business."

A sign of this close relationship is the strong bilateral treaty in place between the two countries. This treaty won't be affected by the recently signed Protection of Investment Act which has targeted the relationship between South Africa, the EU member states and Switzerland.

PETER LEON PARTNER, HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS LAW FIRM "I don't think China will be very impressed by this act, and the regulations, but actually because the bilateral investment treaty with China, is still in effect, it's not going to affect Chinese investments in South Africa. What South Africa did, which in my view was rather inconsistent, and you might say hypocritical. It maintained its bilateral investment treaties with China, Russia, Cuba, Argentina and all African countries that had signed bilateral investment treaties with, only terminated those with the European Union."

On a global level, China is taking a very distinctive leadership position, since US President Trump took office.

PETER LEON PARTNER, HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS LAW FIRM "And the interesting thing here is that China has really been, in the last couple of years, particularly since the Trump presidency, at the forefront of effective investment protection, for Chinese investments around the world. So China's very much led the field on effective investment protection, on recourse to international arbitration, on protecting investments against unfair and inequitable treatment and has really encouraged developing countries to sign bilateral investment treaties."

DR. COBUS VAN STADEN, SENIOR RESEARCHER CHINA-AFRICA PROGRAM, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INT'L AFFAIRS "China is definitely positioning itself as a champion of globalization, so obviously China, Chinese growth and Chinese development is helped a lot by globalization, and China is very interested in positioning itself as a key crossroads for global flows."

Analysts say that part of that approach was to develop a strong strategic relationship with South Africa.

DR. COBUS VAN STADEN, SENIOR RESEARCHER CHINA-AFRICA PROGRAM, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INT'L AFFAIRS "South Africa is a key ally for China in Africa. One reason is that the South African economy is quite developed and multi-layered. So there's a lot more points of entry for engagement with, between different Chinese actors and South Africa. At the same time, the governments are seen to be quite on the same page."

The relationship between China and other African countries is also based on bilateral treaties, although there is increasing engagement with the African Union.

DR. COBUS VAN STADEN, SENIOR RESEARCHER CHINA-AFRICA PROGRAM, SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INT'L AFFAIRS "We are seeing engagement with the AU is growing more and more. FOCAC itself is opening the space for this kind of wide platform where there's a lot of different relationships but most of those still are bilateral relationships. So I think Africa is going to have to be more proactive, to set itself up as a bloc."

ANGELO COPPOLA JOHANNESBURG "Economic ties between South Africa and China are solid and expected to continue growing as business people increasingly explore opportunities in both countries. I'm Angelo Coppola for CGTN in Johannesburg, South Africa."