What Exactly Is the Story with China’s Rare Earths?
from ChinaFileDeng Xiaoping reportedly said that while the Middle East has oil, China has rare earths. On May 29, Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily warned of the United States’ “uncomfortable” dependence on Chinese rare earths: “Will rare earths...
Beijing’s Long Struggle to Control Xinjiang’s Mineral Wealth
The Silk Road Economic Belt—the overland component of Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—promises to bind China to Central Asia and beyond through a new infrastructural network. Connecting through China’s far western Xinjiang...
China is Driving a Boom in Brazilian Mining, but at What Cost?
In the middle of northern Brazil’s Amazon jungle, Chinese-made digging equipment rasps at the bottom of a giant iron ore mine. Here in the municipality of Canaã dos Carajás in the Serra dos Carajás in Brazil’s Pará state, some 1,...
Uganda: President Cancels $175 Million Mining Project
President Museveni has stopped a multi-billion copper mining project with a Chinese company at Kilembe Mines following information that a former minister pocketed a $1m bribe to influence the deal.
China Is in the Middle of Diplomatic Spat With One of Its Oldest Allies in Africa
Zambian authorities have detained 31 Chinese citizens on suspicion of illegal copper mining, according to Chinese officials who have formally complained about the arrest.
‘The New York Times’ on China, from on the Ground in Namibia
Western news coverage of China’s engagement in Africa often is confined to the business section, generally focusing on loans, resource deals, or other financial dealings. Moreover, ambitious international feature reporting,...
Chinese-IMF Rivalry Worsened Congo’s Debt Load
In 2007, when China’s Exim Bank unveiled a massive U.S.$6 billion mining deal in the Democratic Republic of...
All 33 Miners Trapped in China Coal Mine Found Dead
The State Administration of Work Safety ordered an investigation into the blast, adding that “those responsible must be strictly punished”
Search Continues for 20 Miners Missing After Blast in China
35 miners were working at the privately-owned Jinshangou mine when the explosion happened Monday morning; two escaped alive, and 13 have been confirmed dead
China Coalminers Seek New Debt Terms
Some of China’s largest state-owned coalminers are asking banks to relax payment terms on loans, as a profound slump in prices devastates China’s coal heartland.
Shandong: Miners Rescued After 36 Days
Four Chinese miners who had been trapped underground for 36 days have been rescued, Chinese state media say.
Green Activists Detained for ‘Prostitution,’ Yangtze Dolphins Rebound
Episode 36 – Sim Chi Yin
Sharron Lovell speaks with Sim Chi Yin about crossing the lines between journalism and advocacy. Chi Yin recently published her four year story following a Chinese gold miner suffering with the lung disease silicosis, caused by years of inhaling...
A Miner’s China Dream
Over the four years I have known him, He Quangui, a gold miner from Shaanxi, has told me many times he wants to travel with me back to Beijing. It’s not just me he wants to visit. He dreams of going to the Chinese leadership’s compound,...
Dying to Breathe
This is the unseen cost of gold mining in China—the world’s top gold producer. In China, silicosis is considered a form of pneumoconiosis, which affects an estimated six million workers who toil in gold, coal, or silver mines or in stone-cutting...
Dying to Breathe—A Short Film Shows China’s True Cost of Gold
This is the unseen cost of gold mining in China—the world’s top gold producer. In China, silicosis is considered a form of pneumoconiosis, which affects an estimated six million workers who toil in gold, coal, or silver mines or in stone-cutting...
A Flash Point in China-Africa Relations Re-Opens in Zambia
When critics of the Chinese in Africa make their case, the Collum coal mine in Zambia is invariably on their list of grievances. The controversial mine has been the site of violent labor disputes that have severely injured, even killed, both...
China’s Controversial Trade in Africa’s Natural Resources
China often faces blistering criticism for its voracious appetite for Africa’s natural resources. Chinese companies are spread across the continent mining, logging, and fishing to feed both hungry factories and people back home. In most, if not...
What China Has to Do with the Mysterious Death of an Indigenous Leader in Ecuador
Last week the leader of an Ecuadorian indigenous group, José Isidro Tendetza Antún was found by his son in an unmarked grave. The outspoken critic of a controversial Ecuadorian mining project had been due to speak at the United Nations climate...
David Walker on China in the Australian Mind
from Sinica Podcast{vertical_photo_right}
This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy are delighted to be joined by Professor David Walker, Chair of the Australian Studies department at Peking University and historian with a special focus on Australian immigration...
Massive Chinese Mining Deal in DRC Back on Track
The controversial Sino-Congolese mining deal Sicomines has been revived thanks to new financing from China's Exim Bank. This is one of Beijing's biggest natural resources-for-infrastructure deals in Africa. If successful, the deal would net...
China Tries To Establish Foothold In Zambia, Tanzania
Howard French, author of China's Second Continent, talks to Steve Inskeep about why some African countries are of particular interest to Chinese leaders.
Anti-Chinese Sentiment on Rise in Myanmar
from chinadialogueThe Shwe pipeline shaves an angry bald strip across the red clay hills and disappears into the morning mist. A sign hanging above an area cordoned off by bamboo fencing warns in English, “Severe punishment on pipeline destruction.”
“...
Chinese Trust Fund Avoids High-profile Default
One of China's biggest “shadow banks” raises Rmb3bn from investors, which was backed by a coal mine which later collapsed.
Why a Reporter Feels Sympathy for an Airport Bomber
These past few years as a reporter, I have met some people with nothing left to live for and now another person can be added to the list. Ji Zhongxing, the disabled man who set off a bomb in a Beijing airport on July 20, is that person.
Ji...
China Mine Runoff Pollutes Water for 30,000, China Daily Says
Officials in southern China shut 112 illegal mines after polluted runoff entered the local water supply, killing fish and making the water unusable for about 30,000 people,...
Anyuan
How do we explain the surprising trajectory of the Chinese Communist revolution? Why has it taken such a different route from its Russian prototype? An answer, Elizabeth Perry suggests, lies in the Chinese Communists’ creative development and deployment of cultural resources – during their revolutionary rise to power and afterwards.
Morococha: The Peruvian Town the Chinese Relocated
from chinadialogueThe headlines have been stark: a Chinese mining company moves an entire Peruvian town of 5,000 people five miles down the road to make way for its new mine.
It sounds like another story about an extractive corporation riding roughshod over...
Mongolia Finds China Can Be Too Close for Comfort
In a global rush to get rich off China, Mongolia works to ensure that Chinese investment doesn't become Chinese dominance.
Clampdown on Gold Dredging in China Sees Switch to Mongolia and Russia
from chinadialogueThe Heilongjiang basin, in northeast China, was attracting gold prospectors as early as the late Qing dynasty, which collapsed in 1912. Panning for gold is damaging for rivers and wetlands, but at the time the region was sparsely populated and...
Inner Mongolia: Mining the Grasslands
LOCAL legend has it that the beauty of the grasslands in Xilin Gol, a prefecture in eastern Inner Mongolia, so captivated the 13th-century warrior Genghis Khan that he planned to settle down there once his battles were over. He might be less...
In Ecuador, Home Truths for China
from chinadialogue“We need to make contact with the Chinese media as urgently as possible.” I was on my university campus in New York when I received this call for help from an Ecuadorean NGO on March 5.
Some 4,000 kilometers south, in Quito, the Chinese...
Rail Builders Shift Interest to Overseas Mines
After a three-year wait, China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. (CRCC) recently won permission to launch a major copper mining project in Ecuador.
The production agreement signed April 25 by Ecuador’s government and Corriente Resources, a...
Chinese Demand Stokes U.S. Coal Battle
TRINIDAD, Colorado—When the New Elk mine reopened amid windblown prairies last winter, it attracted little attention. But the mine—a long shaft boring through some of the world’s most valuable coal—strikes at the heart of a growing debate about...
Identifying the Linkages Between Major Mining Commodity Prices and China’s Economic Growth—Implications for Latin America
Major mining commodity prices are inherently volatile and cyclical. High levels of investment in China have been a key driver in the strong world demand for minerals and metals over the past decade. The urbanization and industrialization of China...
Addressing the Environmental and Social Governance Challenges of Chinese Mining Companies Operating in Africa
There is growing concern about the environmental and social implications of China’s overseas involvement in Africa, especially in environmentally-sensitive sectors such as mining and other extractive industries. In particular, Chinese firms are...
Addressing the Environmental and Social Governance Challenges of Chinese Mining Companies Operating in Africa
The growth of China’s consumption of base metals is reflected in increased overseas engagement in mining activities, particularly in Africa. There is increasing concern about the environmental and social implications of China’s overseas...
China’s Gadflies and the Mine Miracle
from Sinica PodcastThis Week: Kaiser Kuo hosts a discussion all about China’s best-known gadflies: artist-cum-activist Ai Weiwei and writer, auto racer, and blogger Han Han. So join us as we talk about who both of these public figures are and why...