“You'll Be Fired if You Refuse” - Human Rights Watch

I. Background
China’s role in African industry is neither as new nor as vast as often depicted by the
media and some Western scholars, but there is no question that the last decade has seen
enormous growth in Chinese investment throughout the continent. State-owned and
private Chinese companies have become active in Africa in industries as wide-ranging as
construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, farming, and mining—and the direct
employment of local workers is likely to continue to grow in coming years. It is within this
framework that Human Rights Watch has undertaken this work—not to assess “Chinese
investment” or “China in Africa”—but to evaluate human rights and labor practices in
specific Chinese government-owned companies.
Zambia’s copper industry provides a useful magnifying lens into Chinese labor practices in
Africa because of the historic relationship between the two countries, the relative length of
time that Chinese state-owned companies have been engaged in Zambian industries, and
the number of Zambians directly employed by these companies. One scholar on China’s
role in Zambia has called the Chinese mining operations there “politically embedded in
China’s Africa policy.” 1 Zambia is one of the world’s biggest copper producers, with an
industry that dates back to the 1920s. It enjoys a workforce highly educated in mining,
historically strong labor unions, and detailed mining regulations. Zambia is home to a
multiparty democracy since 1991 and has never faced internal armed conflict. It represents,
in many ways, one of the most potentially protective environments for labor in the
developing world. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different, and Zambians working for
Chinese-owned copper mines find themselves vulnerable to a range of abuses.
Chinese engagement in Zambia’s copper industry comes through China Non-Ferrous
Metals Mining Corporation (CNMC). CNMC, which owns the four Chinese subsidiaries
that control daily operations in Zambia, is, like other Chinese state-owned enterprises,
“under the management of [China’s] State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration
Commission [SASAC] of the State Council.” 2 The State Council, in turn, is China’s
“highest executive organ of State power, as well as the highest organ of State
administration,” run by authorities including a premier appointed by China’s president
1 Dan Haglund, “In It for the Long Term? Governance and Learning among Chinese Investors in Zambia’s Copper Sector,” The
China Quarterly, vol. 199, September 2009, p. 637.
2 China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group), About CNMC, http://www.cnmc.com.cn/p375.aspx.
13 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | NOVEMBER 2011