Democratic Republic of Congo Demands More from China, Its Largest Trading Partner: But Why?

Šárka Waisová ()
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Šárka Waisová: University of West Bohemia

Chapter Chapter 14 in China's Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, 2025, pp 253-274 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract As the world moves from an energy system built on fossil fuels to one powered by electricity and renewables, global demand for materials such as cobalt which is the basic element for production of electric vehicles’ batteries is rising. This chapter is interested in the DRC and trade in cobalt. The DRC has biggest cobalt deposits and is its largest current producer. Since 2015, China is the biggest trading partner of the DRC and buys most of Congo's cobalt production. However, Kinshasa has repeatedly stopped sales of cobalt to China and proposes to fundamentally reform the relationship. The question is why is the DRC changing its relations with China? Inspired by the Resource Dependence Theory, I suggest that there are three causes having potential to explain a change in Sino-Congolese relations: firstly, resource dependence of China on cobalt from the DRC and minimum possibility to find an alternative supplier; secondly, the growing demand for cobalt from other countries; and, thirdly, the DRC effort to play a more significant role in EV supply chain. Using contrafactual analysis of causation, the following text scrutinizes the three suggested causes.

Keywords: China; DR Congo; change in Sino-Congolese relations; Trade in cobalt; Belt and Road Initiative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-80400-7_14

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80400-7_14

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