PRC Illicit and Malign Activities in Africa: Critical Infrastructure and Mining

Executive Summary

This report is part of a series that considers trends in People's Republic of China (PRC) activities across sectors in Africa in the context of global shocks and changes to international economic markets. In this report, we provide an overview of the PRC's critical infrastructure investments in African nations, with an emphasis on bringing awareness to malign and illicit activities in the mining industry that negatively affect communities, the environment, and economies. These PRC activities are taking place at a time when demand for raw materials from Africa is increasing, allowing an opportunity for African nations to demand more from investors and trading partners.

CNA examined reporting from African media, human rights and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and investigative journalists. We found examples from countries across the African continent where PRC citizens and businesses have engaged in widespread labor and human rights abuses, environmental pollution, economic exploitation, and poor-quality construction practices.

The PRC's illicit activities in Africa often violate international laws, rules, and norms. To illustrate the negative effects of PRC activities in Africa, we detail seven cases in which PRC entities and actors were reported to carry out a range of illicit activities between 2018 and 2023.

Key findings

Bringing awareness to malign and illicit PRC activities comes at a time when African leaders are in a better bargaining position to demand more from partner nations.

• Growing global demand for African resources provides an opportunity for African leaders to improve their bargaining position and renegotiate contracts or seek new partners in pursuit of a more equitable balance of benefits.

PRC actors demonstrate a range of malign behavior in its activities in Africa associated with investments and development in critical infrastructure. This behavior is particularly prevalent in the mining sector. This PRC behavior sheds light on many of the problematic standards that have plagued the natural resource extraction sector across the continent.

• These problematic standards include dangerous labor conditions, human rights abuses, environmental damage, economic exploitation, and low-quality workmanship that often directly affect local communities.

The contradiction between the PRC's narrative of helping African nations and people through investment and development projects and the reality of their activities points to a larger paradox within the critical minerals industry in Africa.

• Although exploitation of these resources on a global level is essential to implement climate change mitigation strategies, at the local level, they can cause environmental destruction, deepen social inequities, and contribute to human suffering.