Follow CGSP on Social Media

Listen to the CGSP Podcast

TRANSLATION: Chinese Ambassador Zhu Jing Reflects on His First Visit to the Congo’s Strategically Vital Southern Mining Zone

Chinese ambassador to the DR Congo, Zhu Jing, meeting with Chinese employees of the Sino-Congolese mining company SICOMINES during a recent tour of southern DRC. Image via @SICOMINES.

Chinese ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zhu Jing, is back in Kinshasa now after a week-long tour earlier this month to the country’s strategically important mining zones in Lualaba and Katanga Provinces. Those two regions are at the heart of a rapidly escalating geopolitical competition among the world’s major economic powers over who will have access to the DRC’s vast supply of cobalt and other metals/minerals that are used to power electric vehicles.

China, for now, is the dominant foreign player in the Congolese cobalt extractive sector, and Zhu’s visit was widely perceived as a way to convey to international rivals in Washington, D.C., Brussels and elsewhere that Beijing’s standing in the region remains formidable.

  • Get a daily email packed with the latest China-Africa news and analysis.
  • Read exclusive insights on the key trends shaping China-Africa relations.
  • Full access to the News Feed that provides daily updates on Chinese engagement in Africa and throughout the Global South.

China, Africa and the Global South... find out what’s happening.

Subscribe today for unlimited access.

What is The China-Global South Project?

Independent

The China-Global South Project is passionately independent, non-partisan and does not advocate for any country, company or culture.

News

A carefully curated selection of the day’s most important China-Global South stories. Updated 24 hours a day by human editors. No bots, no algorithms.

Analysis

Diverse, often unconventional insights from scholars, analysts, journalists and a variety of stakeholders in the China-Global South discourse.

Networking

A unique professional network of China-Africa scholars, analysts, journalists and other practioners from around the world.