Mysterious murder of Chinese gold miners puts new pressure on Beijing

The Chinese Embassy in the Central African Republic had one stark warning to his compatriots in the landlocked country: do not leave the capital Bangui. Kidnappings of foreigners increased and any Chinese outside Bangui had to leave those areas immediately.

Less than a week later, on March 19, a group of gunmen stormed a remote gold mine far away from Bangui and killed nine Chinese workers.

The Central African government has said it investigated the massacre and concluded that a leading rebel group had orchestrated it. The rebels have denied the accusation, blaming a third party operating in the country – the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which in turn has accused the rebels. None of the parties has provided evidence for its claims.

The investigation has left a trail of unanswered questions about the attackers’ motives and methods. More than a dozen Central African soldiers were said to be protecting the site, according to a diplomat who knew about the investigation, but only four of them were there on the day of the attack and all survived.

The victims have not been identified and their bodies were cremated shortly after the attack. A local mayor said the workers were shot at close range. A photo shared by local and Western officials in the country showed the attackers leaving the bodies face down in a row in the rust-colored mud, as if to send a message.

The cloudiness surrounding the killings underscored the growing security challenge facing the Chinese government as Chinese companies have rapidly expanded their operations around the world and often find themselves in the middle of conflict zones with unstable governments and armed groups vying for territory.

Chinese workers face growing threats in countries such as Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan, including a suicide bombing last year that targeted a Chinese cultural center in Karachi and killed three Chinese teachers. Three in 2020 Chinese nationals were killed after a Chinese-owned warehouse in Zambia was set on fire.

The attacks have exposed the growing gap between China’s economic ambitions and the security apparatus abroad, which relies on a patchwork of local military, mercenaries and private companies to guard Chinese workers, analysts say. According to John Van Oudenaren, an analyst focused on Chinese foreign policy at the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank, the Chinese military has a minimal foreign presence and limited ability to project troops far beyond its borders.

But China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has aggressively proclaimed a more nationalistic view of China, increasing domestic pressure on his government to show that China is proactively protecting its citizens abroad. In late April, as part of the evacuation of Chinese nationals from Sudan, which was rocked by a war between two rival generals, the Chinese government sent a military ship with the sign reading: “President Xi has sent this naval ship to take everyone home.”

“China is on thin ice in the sense that it is entering some of the world’s most poorly governed places and fueling conflict,” said Ammar Malik, a senior researcher at William & Mary who tracks China’s development finance. “And every time an attack happens, it angers the Chinese public and forces China to reconsider this light-hearted, hands-off approach.”

After the killings in the Central African Republic, people on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, sarcastically commented that the attack was inconsistent with the portrayal of China in the “Wolf Warrior” films, a pair of nationalistic Chinese action films that promoted the idea . that China would always protect its citizens from danger in foreign lands.

But most online comments about the attack were heavily censored, with Weibo downplaying hashtags about the deaths. Instead, the site highlighted a sharp public rebuke by Mr. Xi, who called for the attackers severely punished.

The allegations surrounding Wagner’s possible involvement are particularly sensitive to China, pointing to the complications Mr Xi faces when he strengthens ties with Russia, even during the war in Ukraine, with the aim of counterbalancing the United States and their Western allies. The murders took place a day before Mr. Xi landed in Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin.

Some influential Chinese, such as Hu Xijin, the former editor of the Global Times, a Communist Party newspaper, have said those who blamed Wagner for the attack were trying to undermine China-Russia relations.

Wagner, a Kremlin-backed private network of companies involved in security, political influence and the exploitation of natural resources, has had a dominant presence in the Central African Republic since 2018. It provides personal protection and political support to President Faustin-Archange Touadéra in exchange for access to diamonds, gold and timber.

In many parts of the country, Wagner has driven rebel groups out of resource-rich areas, prompting them to turn more to kidnapping for ransom.

In early March, miners began working near the village of Chimbolo, a few hours northeast of the capital. The Gold Coast Group, a Chinese company, was opening a new gold mine there. The attack came soon after.

Investigators and local officials say the area is controlled by Wagner and the Central African Army. But the government blamed the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups. In response, Aboubakar Siddick Ali, a spokesperson for the group, said in an interview that the rebels did not operate in the area to avoid being “cornered by Wagner”.

Wagner has become more dependent on his mining operations in Africa, a source of hard money helping businessmen near the Kremlin evade Western sanctions imposed after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, said Alessandro Arduino, an expert on Chinese security at King’s College London.

“Wagner and China have the same exploitative interests in Africa, but Wagner thrives on chaos, while China needs stability,” said Arduino.

Gold Coast, which was unavailable for comment, was one of several small Chinese mining companies that have attempted to extract gold from the Central African Republic in recent years. Those companies have diverted waterways to reclaim riverbeds, researchers say, damaging the environment and angering locals. There have been some too accused of human rights violations.

“The presence of foreign companies creates tensions with the local population, as you can expect,” says Olivier Mbombo Mossito, who previously worked as a prosecutor in Bambari, the town closest to the murder scene. “The takeover of this mining site by a Chinese company may have caused some anger, but from whom?”

Arnaud Djoubaye Abazène, the Central African Republic’s justice minister, told reporters last month that the rebels were “undoubtedly” behind the killing. But he did not release any evidence or answer reporters’ questions. He thanked “our Russian allies” for arresting and killing some of the suspected attackers, who have not been named.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s head, said in a written response to questions that “bandits killed the Chinese”.

“The bandits have been found,” Mr. Prigozhin wrote. “There’s nothing to discuss here.”

But researchers and Western diplomats say the miners’ killings didn’t fit the profile of how rebel groups have targeted Chinese nationals in the past. The groups have typically kidnapped Chinese workers to get ransom from their employers, with such execution-style killings being highly uncommon.

Two Chinese officials dispatched from Beijing attended the Justice Minister’s press conference. They said they had not yet gained access to the crime scene.

The mine has been closed since March 19. China repatriated about 80 civilians shortly after the killing.

Nicole Hong reported from Seoul and Eliane Peltier from Dakar, Senegal. Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting from Nairobi, Kenya.