This is not new: Africa is often used as a battleground for the great planetary powers. In a new round of confrontation, the United States and China intend to settle (one of) their differences on the ground of the DRC. The elected American Republican Chris Smith affirms that the Middle Kingdom has recourse, in this Central African country, to forced labor and the exploitation of children. Accusations validated, for many years, by Amnesty International.
To ReadContract of the century DRC-China: the underside of an “economic colonization” agreement
It is true that China controls the majority of DRC’s cobalt mines, an essential resource, especially for lithium-ion batteries. In particular, it holds a 68% stake in the copper and cobalt company Sicomines, alongside the Congolese state mining company Gécamines. The DRC is the world’s leading producer of cobalt, but also the leading African producer of copper. It could also experience a lithium boom.
Individual penalties
Introduced in the United States House of Representatives on June 30, a bill plans to ban the import of products containing minerals that are essential to the electric vehicle battery sector but whose extraction would, in part, made by Congolese children. Smith also wants the US head of state to impose individual sanctions on foreign actors who exploit children in Congo.
On the side of Washington, this workhorse is not new. In 2019, a complaint was filed in the United States against five of the largest technology companies, for forced labor of young Africans. In early 2022, the country pledged to support the fight against child labor in artisanal mines, especially after an official visit by the US Deputy National Security Advisor, Daleep Singh, to Kinshasa….
ReadMines in the DRC: Washington denounces “opaque” Chinese contracts and proposes a “different model”
The recent call for a boycott comes in a tense atmosphere between the two powers. Lately, the United States had imposed restrictions on China’s access to advanced microchips; the US government claimed to have shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon and US President Joe Biden had called his Chinese counterpart a “dictator”. Moreover, in the two governments, teeth are gnashing as to the status of Taiwan…
It remains to be seen whether the new American bill will materialize and whether the Congolese will benefit from it. Would child labor really be affected by the measure? And how would the Congolese economy digest the measure?
2023-07-05 08:08:28
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