– The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) controversial actions in Africa’s mining sector and its damage to human rights, exacerbation of labor exploitation and regional instability—particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and Ghana—were the focus of a congressional hearing chaired today by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the House Foreign Affair Subcommittee on Africa.

Experts testified on how Beijing’s resource-driven policies contribute to child forced labor, geopolitical tensions across the continent, and threaten U.S. national security.

“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,” Smith said. “President Trump’s Executive Order for ‘Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production’ is a crucial step toward strengthening our domestic supply chains. This action will create American jobs, drive economic growth, reduce our reliance on foreign adversaries, and make us stronger at home. The United States must break its dependence on minerals that finance the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—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 DRC—an opportunity to strengthen collaboration in securing resources essential for our technological advancement and national security,” Smith said.

Click here to read the Chairman’s opening remarks. Click here to watch him open the hearing.

 Strategies to counter the CCP’s exploitative practices and seek more ethical sourcing of metals and minerals vital to global supply chains, and to economies of the continent, were discussed by witnesses: Sasha Lezhnev, Senior Policy Advisor, The Sentry; Thierry Dongala, Founder, Accountable Africa; Joseph Mulala Nguramo, nonresident Fellow, Atlantic Council Scowcroft Center; and Obert Bore, Responsible Business & Human Rights Program Lead, Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association.

Mr. Lezhnev stated to the subcommittee, “China made a strategic decision a decade ago to procure critical minerals and has spent well over $10 billion acquiring mines across Africa and elsewhere in the world, and it has established monopolies over some of them. These minerals have spurred China’s development and have had a direct impact on its EV industry, with Chinese EVs being sold much cheaper than U.S. or European models. China is now sub-Saharan Africa’s largest trading partner, which stands in sharp contrast to the 1990s, when Europe and the US dominated African markets…Such investment has come with significant corruption. It is perhaps no accident that the African countries that export the most to China also have some of the world’s worst corruption ratings.”

Mr. Dongala told the congressional panel, “Chinese companies are all too willing to circumvent artisanal mining regulations and the overall USD system. This effectively hands over vast swaths of the artisanal gold trade to Chinese influence and even encourages governments to confiscate gold mines, which are often owned by U.S investors, to hand them over to Chinese operators.”

Mr. Nguramo stated, “China routinely operates in the shadows of governments that lack transparency, and care little for Accountability, Transparency, Human Rights and Democracy. I wish to argue that political and social stability and prosperity in the DRC is essential to US National Security. And the United States should play a leading role in the stabilization of the region...But China has, instead, mastered strategies to take advantage of a country in chaos—often bribing government officials to acquire Mining concessions.”

Smith announced that he introduced, yesterday, H.R.2310, the COBALT Supply Chain Act, which he says “ensures that goods made using or containing cobalt refined in the People's Republic of China do not enter the United States market under the presumption that the cobalt is extracted or processed with the use of child and forced labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

For the most recent version of this advisory, click on:

https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413579

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