China’s foreign ministry has expressed concerns over the recent detention of 31 of its nationals in Zambia, allegedly involved in illegal mining activities, arguing the African country’s authorities didn’t provide strong proof for the arrests.
Lin Songtian, director-general for African affairs at the ministry, said his country supports actions to crack down on illegal mining, but believes Zambian authorities have some explanation to do in this particular case, South China Morning Post reports.
Among the 31 Chinese nationals arrested over the weekend there is a pregnant woman and two others with malaria.
The group arrested over the weekend at the copper-mining town of Chingola, includes a pregnant woman and two other people with malaria, Lin said.
China has been aggressively expanding its presence in Africa’s resource and energy sectors, with mining investments currently accounting for more than one-third of the country’s total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region.
However, accusations of workers abuse, underpayment and illegal mining against Chinese citizens have also mounted in the past decade.
In 2010, two Chinese managers were accused of attempted murder after firing on miners during a pay dispute. The charges were later dropped.
Two years later, Zambian miners killed a Chinese manager during a riot at a coal mine.
The situation has been similar in other African countries, particularly Ghana, where authorities arrested and repatriated more than 200 Chinese nationals in 2013, following a series of raids on illegal gold mines.
3 Comments
Geosteff
No smoke without fire?
Memo mtoko
INVASION AFRICA… CHING CHONG PART 5
Nibiriu Kombwe
They come with a lot money but they don’t know who to partner with, they are mislead by the citizen (natives of the land) who also don’t know the procedure. When they shown the material they become anxious. There are a lot of small scale mines in Zambia with genuine documents which they can partner with, right now the are looking for partners but the problem is when they arrive here they are welcomed by pseudo intellectuals who later introduce them to sites which are hot or maybe with fake documents. How do they come to know those places with mineral deposits and start mining them on there own without the presence of any citizen of the country they are mining? There must someone giving them data. When arrested they should be at least a combination of the two, them Chinese and the actual citizen who is working with them, they don’t alone!