Slavery, human trafficking and child labour: >https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara

Cobalt Red: a regressive, deeply flawed account of Congo’s mining industry https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/cobalt-red-siddharth-kara-democratic-republic-congo-book-review/

Toxic waste killing animals: >https://www.afrik21.africa/en/niger-chinese-gold-mines-closed-after-the-death-of-around-fifty-animals/

According to local livestock farmers

No further investigation? Certainly not, the US government just passed a bill dishing out $325 million a year of tax payers money for anti-China propaganda stories https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1157/text

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20240505-chinese-owned-gold-mines-in-niger-ordered-shut-after-herders-report-animal-deaths

The same story as above but it added the line:

French company Orano (formerly Areva), which has been extracting uranium in northern Niger for more than 40 years, is regularly accused by NGOs of polluting the environment.

The French have been doing it for 40 years and only now it gets a mention, a throwaway sentence at the end of an article criticising China.

Was there a follow-up? Did the mines reopen? Did the government send in the army, or allow private militias to quell restive natives as they would have to if the West were “protecting its interests?”

Labour violations, stealing land: >https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/

Zimbabwe has been cut off from global financiers over failure to service its debts. The country was also hit by sanctions and trade embargos by the European Union, U.K. and U.S. over serious human rights violations.

They conveniently forget to mention how it got into debt and why the country can’t service it. Go look up the country’s history, it might give you a clue as to why they might prefer doing business with China instead of the West.

Of course, mining is a dirty, filthy business. It fucks up the land and is really shitty for anyone who lives nearby. There are bound to be accidents and there are bound to be people who are upset.

That doesn’t alter the fact that China is also building infrastructure, creating jobs and giving them the tools they need to develop thus creating wealth.

I know Americans think Africans still live in mud huts and beat drums at dinner time but they are not so stupid that they keep doing business with people who routinely rip them off.

You will, of course, cry “China bad, China worse.” It seems a lot of African countries are willing to take that risk. After all, the railways that China has built in Southeast Asia, which the West insisted were doomed to fail, are doing extremely well indeed.