The following is from one of the articles in the April 2007 Edition of China Today Magazine, which had a Special Report: Protestantism in China: Religious Rites and Rights http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2007/e200704/ctenglish.htm
“Today China has no more than 4,000 pastors and associate pastors working for 16 million Christians in 55,000 churches and congregations.”

Another article in this special report is by a visiting American professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, who is teaching pastors in China.

If $2 per day is used as a poverty level: “the poverty rate of two dollars per day in China was as high as 64.5 percent in 1993, it had fallen to 37.8 percent by 2004″.
“Along with Vietnam, China is the only other country experiencing a reduction in 2 dollars-a-day poverty rates of two percentage points or more per year on average since the early 1990s.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/16/content_6888061.htm

Ms. Cynthia, from Ghana, participated in the “research classes for officials on African countries’ poverty alleviation policies and practices” organized by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China in 2006. As part of the curriculum, she visited a poverty reduction project in Menghua Village, Longsheng County, in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

“Ghana has similar poverty relief projects, yet the effect is far less obvious. Ghana needs to learn from China’s successful experiences in poverty relief and development,” concluded Cynthia in her paper. She hopes that the Chinese government can send experts to guide poverty alleviation projects in Ghana.

From 1980 – 2005, China lifted 400 million of its own people above the $1 per day poverty level, which is 75% of all the people in the world lifted above this level in this period. There are many article on this, see e.g. http://www.finfacts.ie/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10003611.shtml

“..the poverty rate of two dollars per day in China was as high as 64.5 percent in 1993, it had fallen to 37.8 percent by 2004″.
“Along with Vietnam, China is the only other country experiencing a reduction in 2 dollars-a-day poverty rates of two percentage points or more per year on average since the early 1990s”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/16/content_6888061.htm

South Africa has slipped back 35 places in the Human Development Index (largely but not entirely due to HIV/AIDS), and its HDI ranking in 2007 was 121. In the last few years, China has advanced 20 positions in the HDI rankings, and is now at 81. India’s HDI in 2007 was 128.

Get the entire book (155 pages) here
http://www.ony.unu.edu/seminars/2006/whatsinitforafrica/oecdreport.pdf

African countries are not simply spectators to the economic rise of China and India, they
are party to it. This book demonstrates how the growing economic power of China and India
is already influencing the growth patterns of African countries, particularly oil- and
commodities-exporting ones. As world prices for commodities rise, producer countries
in Africa and throughout the world will gain, but there is more to the story than that. Some
African countries are redirecting part of their trade and other relationships from their traditional
OECD partners to China and India. The book explores the consequences of this, and comes
to some surprising conclusions.
This book is a must-read for anyone who is concerned with the changes in the world
economy being brought about by the extraordinary economic growth of China and India.
Not only do they represent over a billion workers, but these workers are also consumers and
investors. As China and India consolidate their positions in Africa, the results could
be unexpected and dramatic.

Here are some recent articles on India’s push for Africa’s resources.

New Delhi rushes to catch up to Beijing in race for commodities
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=4336104

India moves to cement African partnership
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=4345338

India loosens purse strings to cultivate resource-rich Africa
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=565&fArticleId=4343928