Bipartisan House Legislation Aims to Counter China’s Investment in Africa

Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) during an interview at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York on Sept. 18, 2023. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a new bill that aims to counter communist China’s malign activities in Africa.

Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Colin Allred (D-Texas), both sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, said China’s activities in Africa, particularly those under Beijing’s foreign investment program, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road, have caused harmful effects to the continent’s environment, ecology, and public health, according to a press release issued on Aug. 5.

“The PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative coerces developing nations to fall into [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping’s debt-trap diplomacy but also exposes vulnerable populations to harmful ecological, environmental, and public health risks,” Kim said in a statement, referring to the acronym of communist China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

“We cannot allow Xi Jinping to get away with growing his global power and violating international environmental and labor laws in the process,” she said.

Announced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2013, BRI seeks to build Beijing-centered land and maritime trade networks by financing infrastructure projects throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. According to China’s official data, many African countries are BRI participants, including South Africa, Gambia, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia.

The legislation, Stopping PRC Environmental Exploitation and Degradation (SPEED) Act, (H.R. 9265), would establish that it is the policy of the United States to oppose the actions of China-linked entities that do not abide by the host country, international environmental protection, and labor laws in their exploitation of natural resources in Africa.

“I am proud to lead the SPEED Act to counter the Belt and Road Initiative and hold the PRC accountable for its exploitative practices, deliberate environmental degradation, and threat to African communities’ livelihoods,” Kim said.

If enacted, the legislation would also require the secretary of state and the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to submit to Congress a strategy on how the United States will work with African countries to “develop mitigation strategies for the negative environmental impact” caused by Chinese companies, according to the language of the bill.

Additionally, the legislation would authorize the president to impose sanctions on China-linked entities responsible for adverse environmental, ecological, or public health incidents in Africa.

“We cannot allow the People’s Republic of China and Chinese-linked companies to continue their exploitation of African nations as they subject their people to harmful ecological and public health risks,” Allred said in a statement.

The legislation referenced a State Department report titled “China’s Environment Abuses” published during the Trump administration. In the report, it called the BRI projects “not-so-green.”

“In recent years, Chinese-backed projects on several continents have displaced local populations, negatively affected water quality, polluted adjacent land, and spoiled fragile ecosystems,” the report reads.

“A study published in Nature Sustainability suggested BRI projects may lead to ‘permanent environmental degradation’ due to environmental harm through pollution, habitat loss, and wildlife mortality, among others.”

The bill also documents incidents of adverse environmental, ecological, and public health incidents in Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2021, local communities in the Congo accused a Chinese mining company of polluting the Aruwimi River, a tributary of the Congo River. “Locals reported water discolored by waste disposal. The incident sparked an increase in sickness, and dead fish began floating in the river, which locals consumed,” the bill reads.

In Gambia, fishmeal processing factories owned partially or wholly by Chinese investors have been accused of committing illegal and unreported fishing practices and discharging untreated waste into waterways since 2016, the bill said.

A Chinese natural gas plant in Ethiopia’s Somali region has been accused of poisoning drinking water with its hazardous chemical waste, allegedly causing over 2,000 deaths, according to the text of the legislation.