{"id":1482081,"date":"2024-08-07T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1482081"},"modified":"2024-08-07T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T10:00:00","slug":"bipartisan-house-legislation-aims-to-counter-chinas-investment-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/bipartisan-house-legislation-aims-to-counter-chinas-investment-in-africa\/1482081\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan House Legislation Aims To Counter China’s Investment In Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bipartisan House Legislation Aims To Counter China’s Investment In Africa<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a new bill that aims to counter communist China\u2019s malign activities in Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Reps. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and Colin Allred (D-Texas), both sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, said China\u2019s activities in Africa, particularly those under Beijing\u2019s foreign investment program, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road, have caused harmful effects to the continent\u2019s environment, ecology, and public health, according to a press release<\/a> issued on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PRC\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative coerces developing nations to fall into [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping\u2019s debt-trap diplomacy but also exposes vulnerable populations to harmful ecological, environmental, and public health risks,\u201d Kim said in a statement, referring to the acronym of communist China\u2019s official name, the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow Xi Jinping to get away with growing his global power and violating international environmental and labor laws in the process,\u201d<\/strong> she said.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2019s official data, many African countries are BRI participants, including South Africa, Gambia, Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

The legislation, Stopping PRC Environmental Exploitation and Degradation (SPEED) Act, (H.R. 9265<\/a>), 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019 livelihoods,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Kim said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdevelop mitigation strategies for the negative environmental impact\u201d caused by Chinese companies, according to<\/a> the language of the bill.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow the People\u2019s 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,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Allred said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The legislation referenced a State Department report<\/a> titled \u201cChina\u2019s Environment Abuses\u201d published during the Trump administration. In the report, it called the BRI projects \u201cnot-so-green.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years, Chinese-backed projects on several continents have displaced local populations, negatively affected water quality, polluted adjacent land, and spoiled fragile ecosystems,\u201d the report reads.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA study published in Nature Sustainability suggested BRI projects may lead to \u2018permanent environmental degradation\u2019 due to environmental harm through pollution, habitat loss, and wildlife mortality, among others.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The bill also documents incidents of adverse environmental, ecological, and public health incidents in Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2021, local communities in the Congo accused a Chinese mining company of polluting the Aruwimi River, a tributary of the Congo River. \u201cLocals reported water discolored by waste disposal. The incident sparked an increase in sickness, and dead fish began floating in the river, which locals consumed,\u201d the bill reads.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A Chinese natural gas plant in Ethiopia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 08\/07\/2024 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/bipartisan-house-legislation-aims-counter-chinas-investment-africa<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bipartisan House Legislation Aims To Counter China’s Investment In Africa Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times, A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1482082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}