After the Chinese spy balloons, Washington ready to shoot down the Chinese contract in the DRC
February 24, 2023 TIGHANA MASIALA 0
The IGF Jules Alingete, the man who shakes up Chinese interests in Congolese mines
The publication by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) of the report on the Chinese contract, signed in 2008 between the Democratic Republic of Congo and a group of Chinese companies, brought back to Congolese soil the great economic battle being waged by the United States and China globally. In Kinshasa and everywhere else, certain observers suspect an American influence behind the action carried out by the IGF. It is therefore not for nothing that the Chinese Embassy in the DRC did not wait long to react to what it describes as "prejudices" of the IGF, considering that the content "does not correspond to reality and "cannot be considered credible and has no constructive value". That says it all. This means that after the controversy surrounding the Chinese spy balloons intercepted over American skies, Washington seeks to shoot down the Chinese contract in the DRC. Main ally of the United States, the European Union delegated, last Tuesday, to the Minister of Mines, Antoinette N'Samba Kalambayi, its head of the Delegation in the DRC, Jean-Marc Châta Everything is explained.
Earlier this year, the world learned via a press release from the United States Department of Defense that an unidentified spy balloon was spotted and shot down over North American airspace.
Beijing, for its part, said that Washington also sent balloons to spy on its airspace.
Indeed, the diplomatic tension, generated by this affair of the spy balloons, has come to poison the already tense relations between the two countries in recent years.
As the balloon saga continues globally, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it's the latest IGF report on the 2008 Chinese contract that fuels the headlines.Nicknamed "contract of the century", designed on the win-win model, according to its initiators, the conclusions of the IGF have highlighted a predatory enterprise where the interests of the DRC have been totally
In reality, it is the Chinese presence in the mines of the DRC which is called into question. For what interest?Who benefits from this IGF report? So many questions that torment the minds.
Coincidence or simple coincidence? No one can establish the correlation. However, the last trips made by Jules Alingete, boss of the IGF, to the land of Uncle Sam, prompts reflection. And especially when we know the intentions of Washington on the strategic minerals of the DRC, in the context of the upheaval of the current world order.
DRC, battlefield between Washington and Beijing
Between the two countries, the battle is fought over global hegemony. The world's leading economic power, the United States is lagging behind China, in terms of access to strategic minerals for which the DRC has a good natural endowment. However, in Congolese mines, Beijing has a serious advantage, by ensuring control of the copper and cobalt sectors.Just recently, China has again got its hands on the zinc of Upper Katanga, not counting Manono lithium, in Tanganyika province, for which China is fighting to properly position its mining major, ZijinMining Company.
This means that the United States is in a catch-up strategy by over cutting China's interests in Congolese mines. Washington uses all the means at its disposal which, for some, would also include the IGF.
One thing is true: Washington will not let China or Russia control the immense mining resources of the DRC. It is ready to fall back on all the maps at its disposal.
From this point of view, it would therefore not be impossible for Washington to have pushed Jules Alingete to dig up the old disputes around these 2008 contracts in order to discredit the Chinese and, in turn, the supporters of the then regime, now opponents. On the eve of the elections, the strategy would pay off to the regime in place in Kinshasa. The objective could be multiple, including ousting the Chinese, deterring Russia and creating a boulevard facilitating the victory of the current regime in the next elections.
A great ally of the United States, the European Union is already working with the Congolese Government. Last Tuesday, Jean-Marc Châtaigner, Head of the EU Delegation in the DRC, went to meet with the National Minister of Mines, Antoinette N'Samba Kalambayi.Objective of the exchanges: to achieve the construction of a strategic partnership in the processing of the minerals of the DRC. A way to already put in place the elements of the puzzle to better
CF
Renegotiation of the Chinese contract: the IGF Jules Alingete, Washington's armed arm to eat the Chinese?
On September 20, 2022, while the 77th UN Ordinary Session was held in New York, Jules Alingete received in the same city the "Forbes Best of Africa 2022" award instituted by the American magazine Forbes, founded by Bertie Charles Forbes in 1917. head office is located on 5th Avenue in New York. Its annual ranking identifies the most successful companies and the most famous personalities in the world. We give it to you in a thousand: he was awarded the famous "Forbes Best of Africa 2022" Prize in New York. Still by chance? While those who can respond practice there, the "additional investigation" required by the IGF the day before the "United States/Africa" summit in mid-December 2022 should be noted.
Is it a coincidence? Not at all, because in April 2022, Jules Alingete participated in a North-South Investment Forum organized by Anthony Lebukse in Houston with the theme "Insto draw inspiration from the American model to boost the industrialization of the Congo area". The stated objective was "the rapprochement between Congolese decision-makers and American investors, the mixing of business opportunities between the countries of North America and those of the Congo basin, as well as the strengthening of the American economic presence in Congo".
Of course, there was talk of mining in the DRC with, in the background, the reinterpretation of the Sino-Congolese contract.
In August 2022, passing through Kinshasa as part of the Eastern Crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken alluded to it. In the State Department's statement setting the opinion on this visit, the spokesman stressed that "the United States supports the decision of the DRC government to review mining contracts and greater accountability in the sector" and encourages "the DRC to continue its collaboration and work on tax transparency, labor rights and compliance with environmental, social and governance standards for the mining sector". Indeed, since almost the announcement of the signing of the Sino-Congolese contract in 2007, Washington has never appreciated what is considered a "Chinese intrusion" into mining in the DRC, an activity monopolized by Western companies for more than a century.
To do this, continue the spokesman for the State Department, Washington made USD 30 million available to Kinshasa "to help the DRC promote responsible and sustainable mining practices".
And now, in September 2022, on a 60-day investigation mission in the former Katanga, an IGF team will not only summon the IGF's general management without delay, but will also decide on the suspension of customs exemption duties when it had neither the competence nor the right.
Where was he, Jules Alingete, when his team was violating all established rules? The observation to which all these coincidences lead makes a black hand suspected in the bravado of the IGF. She would be American that no one would suspect.
However, the Congolese have realized this for themselves: since the 1985s, there have been no large-scale European or American investments in this country. Worse, the political transition that began in 1990 with the false massacre of students on the Lubumbashi University campus (born in 1963, Jules Alingete was 27 at the time) had led to the suspension of structural cooperation. Worse, the AFDL war followed by the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila as well as the advent of Joseph Kabila in full "balcanization" - since each belligerent independently administered the territory under his control - was a good pretext for Westerners to accentuate disinvestment.
It was finally the Sino-Congolese contract that restored faith and boosted the morale of the Congolese in their country to the great displeasure, unfortunately of the Congolese and foreign forces acquired in the dismemberment scheme.
From there to assume the instrumentalization - perhaps voluntary, perhaps non-voluntary - of the IGF to punish the Chinese for preventing the "balkanization" plan from being realized - there is only one quick step.
Enough to encourage, or rather urge Jules Alingete and all those who, consciously or unconsciously, participated in the black mass on February 15, 2023 to "eat Chinese", to learn to be wary of the gift of modern-day Greeks.
SM (Tribune from yabisonews.cd)
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