Metals, Minerals, and Mining: How the CCP Fuels Conflict and Exploitation in Africa
2025-03-25
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Source: Congress.gov
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Chinese nationals in these operations has strained local communities and contributed to tensions between populists and the authorities. In response to these challenges, I have reintroduced the Cobalt Supply Chain Act. This legislation aims to ensure that goods made using or containing cobalt refined in the People's Republic of China do not enter the U.S. market. addressing concerns that such cobalt is extracted or processed with the use of child and forced labor in the DRC. Then it comes back in our defense and commercial supply chains. Security is a national security issue, and the reliance on China for these critical minerals is a clear vulnerability to the United States and to the Western world. As co-chair of the Congressional Executive Committee on China, I held a hearing in November of 2023 that highlighted the problem of Chinese Communist Party dominance in the DRC's cobalt supply chain and how China's profits from these unethical mining practices. I also chaired a hearing in July of 2022 of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on child labor and human rights violations in the mining industry of the DRC. One of our expert witnesses then said that child labor is one of the worst forms of child abuse, and that's absolutely true. It is forbidden by both Congolese legislation as well as international rules and norms. And yet it continues. The greatest beneficiaries of this system, China's state-owned mining companies, remain silent, refusing to confront an undeniable reality from dirt to battery, from cobalt to cars. The entire supply chain is built on violence, exploitation, and corruption. This must change, and the time for change is now. President Trump's executive order for, quote, immediate measures to increase American mineral production is a crucial step towards strengthening our domestic supply chains.
This action will create American jobs, drive economic growth, and reduce our reliance on foreign adversaries. The United States must break its dependence on minerals that finance the Chinese Communist Party, often extracted through forced child labor, and stop indirectly supporting the CCP's efforts to fuel instability and regional conflict in Africa. At the same time as the CCP tightens its grip on global mineral markets, the U.S. must take decisive action. In line with this strategy, the U.S. Department of State has signaled openness to forming direct critical mineral partnerships with the DRC, an opportunity to strengthen collaboration in securing resources essential for our technological advancement and national security. Today, we have a very distinguished panel of experts that will help us know and give us guidance as a Congress, as a committee, as to where do we go next. And before going to them, it's my delight and my honor to yield to Ms. Jacobs, our ranking member of this subcommittee.
Well, thank you, Chairman Smith, and thank you to all of our witnesses for testifying today on the drivers of conflict and exploitation in Africa's mining sector. As we all know here, there is a long history of exploitation in the mining sector on the African continent that has resulted in environmental degradation, labor exploitation, corruption, and other human rights abuses, and has rarely led to actual prosperity for local communities. There are many drivers of exploitation in the sector, whether that be poor governance that allows corruption to fester, weak judicial institutions that foster a culture of an impunity, lack of economic opportunity for marginalized communities, and so on. These conditions create an environment that's ripe for exploitation by domestic and foreign companies alike. They can act with impunity to cut costs by not adhering to environmental, social, and governance standards due to local corruption eating into their profits. That means poverty wages. That means unsafe and deadly working conditions. That means contaminated water in local communities, and ultimately it means putting short-term gains ahead of the long-term development, stability, and success of the African continent. There is no question that Chinese owned and operated companies are dominating and engaging in exploitive practices in the mining sector in certain African countries. Many of these companies frankly don't care about the corruption and are not as concerned by the blow to their reputation. For example, just this month, the Kafua River in Zambia was declared dead after a Chinese-owned copper mine contaminated the river. In response, the Zambian government fined this company a measly $10,000. This impunity exists all over the continent. We have also seen other foreign companies operate in the sector and be accused of corruption and human rights abuses. For example, Glencore, a Swiss company, pled guilty in the United States to bribing officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, and the DRC, and ultimately agreed to pay the DRC $180 million in a settlement deal.
Last year, the Biden administration sanctioned a UAE-based gold company for purchasing gold from the rapid support forces in Sudan, ultimately fueling the war and the RSF's genocide. And famously, Israeli businessman Dan Gertler was exposed and subsequently sanctioned for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of opaque and corrupt mining and oil deals in the DRC. We will continue to see these practices until we address what is actually fueling exploitation in the first place. Meanwhile, the United States has long attempted to increase U.S. investment in Africa's mining sector as a means to secure our supply chain and compete with China. But these investments won't come to fruition and won't be advantageous or strategic in the long term if they do not meet high environmental, social and governance standards to ensure our investments are bringing benefits rather than more exploitation. To do this, the U.S. government and U.S. companies need to consult with local communities on new investments to obtain their consent and assess the impacts project is having on local populations. If we don't do this, US companies will be on the wrong end of protests and public scrutiny experienced by Chinese owned and operated companies.
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