Thread by @iwasnevrhere_

The U.S. has accelerated a shadow war on China’s mineral empire in Africa.

They think this is their moment. A FARA document filed in February 2025 lays out their fantasy: that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), long entangled in Beijing’s sovereign infrastructure matrix, is now open for looting.
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The signatories told the U.S. State Department, led by Marco Rubio, that it's time to “secure a stable, direct supply chain”, and that President Tshisekedi wanted to “shift away from China’s dominant influence.”

They propose a new alliance backed by U.S. boots, hardware, and extraction rights. Calling for Trump’s personal involvement, and wrapped in a veneer of ethics and transparency.

But the core offer is unmistakable:
Break the China stack, and replace it with an American command layer.

For over a decade, China embedded itself not just in Congo’s mines but in its military, ports, and power grid.

The PLA trained the DRC’s 32nd Rapid Reaction Brigade at Kamina. Huawei and ZTE wove the digital layer. The Chinese navy helped refurbish Type 062 gunboats and built naval facilities at Banana. Hydropower development came through concessional financing, anchored in long-term infrastructure guarantees. Sicomines revenue flows were structured to align with China’s strategic commitments.

The Banana Port, long treated by Washington as a footnote, was militarized under Chinese oversight. So when the FARA letter casually offered that same port to U.S. operators, complete with military access and customs reform, it was a heist.

China, as always, moves like the fox, not the wolf, silent, watching, preparing what it does best: covert restructuring through debt, disruption, and delay.

It’s not just minerals. In March, Beijing negotiated a poultry production system to generate 5 million chicks annually, backed by Chinese genetics, smart farm systems, and breeder training.

By June, a full MoU on agricultural sovereignty was signed, covering seeds, grain storage, mechanization, and fertilizer infrastructure. While the U.S. is drawing maps for mining corridors, China is feeding the state that grows beside them.

But the Americans missed the deeper code.

Because weeks before their FARA gambit was even acknowledged, Beijing had already signed a new MoU with Kinshasa, this time for the Banana-Kinshasa freeway, 450 km of arterial logistics linking the Atlantic coast to the heart of the capital. Signed with Zhongshi Wosen, quiet, efficient, and undeniable.

Beneath the surface of a road lays a protocol layer in motion: port to inland node, synced with Huawei backends, and designed to render Western entry redundant. Matadi would handle overflow, Kolwezi would handle volume, and Banana would handle velocity.

The Americans speak of cobalt and copper like commodities. Beijing treats them like flow control, embedded in customs logic, bonded zones, and layered infrastructure keyed to Chinese standards. What enters the DRC doesn’t leave without touching Chinese hands, nodes, or routes.

As if you can unplug a sovereign mesh by switching partners. As if a FARA document can overwrite a decade of port blueprints, refinery lock-ins, and digital railways.

What they’re proposing is a denial-of-service attack against China’s African operating system.

Beijing doesn’t need to retaliate with volume, just latency. Delay inspections, slow payments, and freeze customs protocols. The minerals would still move, but never on American time.

Even now, China controls the actual tempo of Congo’s trade spine: the fiber, the roads, the ports, the grid. The Banana Freeway is just the latest handshake between physical geography and Chinese coordination theory.

If Tshisekedi thinks the U.S. can guarantee him stability. Let him ask Libya, Niger, and Sudan. Ask them how many American-backed promises arrived without collapse coded in.

Because this isn’t just about minerals. It’s about who sets the rules of movement, delay, and control. China already embedded the rulebook inside the infrastructure itself.