China’s embassy in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo has been warning Chinese citizens and firms not to venture into the eastern part of the country because of worsening security.
“The security risks faced by Chinese citizens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remain high,” the embassy said last week. “Chinese citizens and enterprises still in the area are requested to evacuate or move to safe areas as soon as possible.”
But the warnings have not been enough to deter a growing number of Chinese nationals attracted by the war-torn region’s massive deposits of gold, tin, tungsten, coltan, tantalum and other minerals.
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According to Eric Mikalano, a researcher in natural resource governance, most of the Chinese arriving in the high-risk province of South Kivu – one of the areas specifically mentioned by the embassy – have the protection of high-ranking local politicians.
“They come to South Kivu informed of the security situation, the potential and the procedure to follow to exploit minerals,” said Mikalano, executive secretary of the NGO initiative Good Governance of Natural Resources in the provincial capital Bukavu.
The gold rush coincides with a surge in prices for the precious metal, which extended gains last year to more than US$2,600 per ounce – up from about US$2,000 at the end of 2023 – as investors seek safety amid intensifying geopolitical uncertainty.
Paul Nantulya, China specialist from the National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington, said that some of the Chinese companies operated under the central governance of a state-owned enterprise but many did not.
“It all revolves around the calculus of risk and reward and the industrial system of subsidies on offer by the Chinese government,” he said.
According to Nantulya, the perception of risk for the Chinese nationals heading for the eastern DRC is based on a reward-cost calculus that differs from their Western counterparts.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) soldiers stand guard against rebel groups in the African nation’s eastern region. Photo: Reuters alt=Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) soldiers stand guard against rebel groups in the African nation’s eastern region. Photo: Reuters>
He said the first thing a Chinese team would do in any enterprise was to establish the reward potential and, once that had been confirmed, very little would stand in the way of establishing a project by way of deterrence.
“That’s why Chinese entities have overtaken their Western counterparts in so many ventures in some of the most insecure parts of the developing world. It explains their daring. The rewards are high.”
The risks can include prosecution, as three Chinese nationals learned recently when a court in Bukavu handed them seven-year prison sentences and US$600,000 in fines for illegal mining and money laundering.
The three were arrested on January 4 with 10 gold bars and US$400,000 in cash, and in addition to money laundering, we found guilty of the illegal purchase and possession of minerals.
However, in another recent case – in which at least 17 Chinese nationals were arrested for allegedly running an illegal gold mine – the outcome was very different, and the men were released.
Jean Purusi, governor of South Kivu, told Congolese media that authorities in Kinshasa had intervened to secure the men’s release and they had been allowed to return to China.
According to Mikalano, when it comes to the illicit exploitation of the province’s resources, the governor finds himself stuck with the decisions made by the national government in Kinshasa, which dictates policy.
Joseph Cihunda, project officer at Southern Africa Resource Watch, said that the Chinese involved in illicit gold mining were operating “with the complicity or support of the political or military authorities at both local and national level”.
Nevertheless, companies from China are paying a high cost for their investment, with a series of recent kidnappings of Chinese and Congolese workers in the region, which has been plagued by violence and instability for the past three decades.
Chinese nationals Cheng Changfu, Wan Lingwu and Cheng Haiyan, who were found guilty of illegal activities linked to the artisanal mining sector, stand in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Bukavu courtroom on January 13. Photo: Reuters alt=Chinese nationals Cheng Changfu, Wan Lingwu and Cheng Haiyan, who were found guilty of illegal activities linked to the artisanal mining sector, stand in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Bukavu courtroom on January 13. Photo: Reuters>
Nantulya said that Chinese nationals and firms were increasingly being viewed as prime targets of such crimes because they were now associated with wealth and financial assets.
“This was not the case prior to the late 1990s [when] the majority of kidnappings for ransom were targeted against Americans in particular and Europeans in general,” he said.
An armed attack on a private Chinese gold mining company in northeastern DRC in July last year left several Chinese nationals dead or missing.
The raid was reportedly carried out by the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (Codeco), a loose association of militia groups, mainly from the ethnic Lendu farming community.
Codeco is one of the many militias fighting for influence and the rich resources in eastern Congo, including the M23 rebel group, which Kinshasa claims is backed by Rwanda – a claim Kigali has denied.
Chinese nationals have also been chasing gold fortunes in Ghana, where Aisha Huang – known as the Galamsey Queen after her illegal mining operation – was sentenced in 2023 to four and a half years in prison and ordered to pay a US$4,000 fine.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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