China in Congo

I spoke to Maurice Carney about the role of China in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mining industry.

Several weeks ago here I reviewed Siddharth Kara’s book “Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives ,” which describes horrific working conditions of “artisanal miners” in the cobalt mining industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Black Agenda Report then received a response from American Canadian activist and writer Dee Knight, who thought I had been overly critical of China when I wrote, “Huge Chinese corporations so dominate Congolese cobalt mining, processing and battery manufacture that one has to ask why a communist government, however capitalist in fact, doesn’t at least somehow require more responsible sourcing of minerals processed and then advanced along the supply chain within its borders.”

This week we’re publishing Dee Knight’s response and my conversation with Maurice Carney, Executive Director of Friends of the Congo, about China in Congo.

[blackagendareport.com]

I thought this article would be a good example of a few aspects of my previous comments wrapped up in one shot on China as an example in regards to their foreign relations. While China gets a multitude of bad and false rhetoric spewed about it from our MSMs, the truth as I have attempted to bring light to is that she's essentially forced to participate in a capitalist world to survive. The same goes with Russia btw. In which both of, and many other western opposition nations are constantly under attack from via false narratives to deceive western citizenships. Latin American socialist and progressive nations mainly. Venezuela is actually mentioned in this article in regards to what I have often mentioned about her.

An attempt to use the Congo against China was recently attempted. While leaving out a large chunk of history which is provided in this article. A common tactic, no?

The Uyghur population was not long ago a false misleading example used by our medias to attempt to build a bad reputation for China. What our medias didn't tell you with the overly false narratives about concentration camps, which were actually training schools for the most part, is the billions the Chinese spent towards the Belt and Road Initiative project in their area to produce jobs for these people, and higher education chances. Along with basically 2 new cities. Our medias didn't make references to the terrorist group aspects who operate for western agendas that the Chinese have to deal with either near this region. Which that often was used to bleed over into the false narrative of the training schools as China had to deal with them. If they're western terrorist, dealing with them isn't tolerated, right? But they can be used by the west to manufacture a false narrative for the good they're attempting to provide for those people.

I think you'll find a correlating resemblance in regards to this Congo issue. Of course, the nature of this mining atmosphere is horrible as it's highlighted in the discussion. But the nature of how China presents itself in the region should be taken into consideration as I think Maurice Carney does a good job of clarifying. Compared to how western governments go into regions and simply take what they want while also piling up debt via world bank loans that often exacerbate poverty and diminish social structures.

{So to describe what is actually there on the ground is not anti-Chinese. It's really just the nature of the capitalist system and its manifestation at the bottom of the global supply chain.

I'll give you an example. In 2001 to 2002, the United Nations published three studies that looked at the illicit exploitation of Congo's minerals, at companies that violated Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) guidelines. They listed 85 companies in this study, and I think that only one company of these 85 was Chinese.

Fast-forward two decades. We now see that the majority of the companies in the Congo are Chinese, but that just means that Chinese have moved into a system that's already in place. They didn't create it. As their economy is growing, they need copper and cobalt and a wide range of minerals. Congo is an outpost for all those minerals, so they go and establish deals with the Congolese government.

And these deals, mind you, are better than what Western corporations have established and are offering because they include the minerals for infrastructure swaps and usually have a larger equity share.}

{AG: So it’s just passed to local managers, right?

MC: In a lot of respects, yes, to the comprador class, I'd say, agents of neocolonialism who are primarily concerned about their own welfare, filling their own pockets. They’re not really concerned about the welfare of the Congolese people.}

{We know what it looks like when you have a progressive leader in place that is concerned about the welfare of the people and who uses a country’s resources to benefit the people. You can hardly think of a better example than Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, who leveraged the oil sector of Venezuela for the benefit of Venezuelans and, really, for the benefit of other poor countries in the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America.

The current leaders in the Congo, they're not really concerned about the welfare of the Congolese people. They're not concerned about upending the system of exploitation.}

It's been a while since I did any post on Venezuela. They've been out of the sights for the most part of our medias since the Trump administrations attempts to overthrow Maduro. But Chavez eradicated a large percentage of poverty in Venezuela while beginning a housing project for 3 million people of the low income population. Socialized healthcare and schooling, including for immigrants from Columbia. Maduro finished that project after the death of Chavez and moved on towards an additional 2 million. With help from the Chinese who they traded various social structure ideologies with. The Chinese with building architectural designs for Venezuela, and Maduro with community projects to unite better functioning atmospheres that helped Venezuela through food shortages due to illegal sanctions placed in him. You might also remember, I'll remind you, throughout the 2000s, Chavez also had low income programs in the US in which he provided low priced fuel during winters in some regions. Billions of dollars worth internationally. The success Chavez was having couldn't be tolerated for western societies to witness. The same goes with China. It won't be allowed in our medias.

The underling notion that should be taken from this article is that China isn't perfect for the desires of reaching their social quotas. But they do it in a more productive way for the society they're working with without forcing diminishing conditions. Like the world socialist web site attempts to teach us, the working class has to quit being compliantly complacent and stand up and demand change for ourselves. A better voting system, and allow 3rd parties into our system legitimately.