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  Investors may have been: Iritani, “Great Idea but Don’t Quote Him.”

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  transformation of state-owned: Hiroki Takeuchi, “Political Economy of Trade Protection: China in the 1990s,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 13, no. 1 (2013): 1–32, jstor.org/stable/26155971.

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  The battery factory was seized: Dexter Roberts, “Cheated in China?,” Bloomberg, October 6, 1997.

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  “We began learning that China”: House Hearing: The Future of U.S.-China Relations and the Possible Accession of China into the World Trade Organization, 105th Cong., 106 (1995) (testimony of Robert R. Aronson).

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  The company was acquired: Yochi J. Dreazen, “McDonnell Douglas Will Pay Fine for Problems with Sale to China,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2001.

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  Chapter 15: Twilight of the Big Vegetables

  which was finished in 1993: Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford University Press, 2009), 139.

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  “The country’s formal economy”: U.S. Embassy Kinshasa, FY1997 Country Commercial Guide: Zaire (Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, August 1996), 1997-2001, 1997-2001.state.gov/about_state/business/com_guides/1997/africa/zaire97.html.

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  huge Kamoto mine: Andrew L. Gulley, “One Hundred Years of Cobalt Production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Resources Policy 79 (2022): art. 103007, doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103007.

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  and fifteen million tons: Kamoto Copper Company Technical Report (Katanga Mining Limited, November 2019), 64.

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  Copper production was just: Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of Congo and the Great War of Africa (PublicAffairs, 2011), 164.

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  Cobalt production had almost: Prunier, Africa’s World War, 139.

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  “You have guns”: “Congo’s War Was Bloody. It May Be About to Start Again,” Economist, February 15, 2018.

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  “The informal economy”: U.S. Embassy Kinshasa, FY1997 Country Commercial Guide: Zaire.

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  he had legalized small-scale: Raphael Deberdt, Baseline Study of Artisanal and Small-Scale Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Responsible Sourcing Network and UBC Anthropology, July 2021), securityhumanrightshub.org/media/pdf/resources/Baseline+Study+Cobalt+ASM+Mining+-+7.28.2021.pdf.

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  the dictator’s China policy: Francis Boulle, interview with the author, July 2023. “Mobutu was getting too close to China,” Boulle told me. “They wanted someone else to run things.” Boulle, a mining entrepreneur, is the son of Max Boulle, a mine investor who, along with his brother Jean-Raymond, would aid the rebellion in search of diamonds and other raw materials.

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  mine entrepreneur of the era: Congo mine entrepreneur, interview with the author, August 2023.

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  his fellow rebel leaders: How Kabila Lost His Way: The Performance of Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s Government, ICG Democratic Republic of Congo Report No. 3 (IGC, May 1999), crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/democratic-republic-congo/how-kabila-lost-his-way.

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  “like an ebony Buddha”: Vincent Hugeux et al., “L’obscur M. Kabila,” L’Express, June 25, 1998, lexpress.fr/monde/afrique/l-obscur-m-kabila_493335.html.

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  he had joined: For a discussion of the pair’s travails in the Congolese bush, see Jon Lee Anderson’s excellent Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life (Grove Press, 1997).

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  “it is essential to have”: Che Guevara, Congo Diary: Episodes of the Revolutionary War in the Congo (Seven Stories Press, 2011), 312.

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  Chapter 16: Building Dreams

  “Dynamic and intelligent”: “BYD Seal,” BYD, https://www.byd.com/fr/car/seal.

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  BYD’s salesman didn’t: Author’s web conversation with “Charles” on BYD.com.

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  BYD would surpass: Daniel Ren, “BYD Overtakes Tesla as World’s Largest Maker of Pure Electric Cars in Fourth Quarter,” South China Morning Post, January 4, 2025, scmp.com/business/china-evs/article/3293269/byd-overtakes-tesla-worlds-largest-maker-pure-electric-cars-fourth-quarter.

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  Wuwei means something: I am indebted to the Medium writer Guangxizhang and Kevin Xu on Substack for their overviews on Wang Chuanfu’s life; both gave me a good basis from which to conduct further research. See Guangxizhang, “The Legendary Life of Wang Chuanfu, the Founder of China’s Trillion-Dollar Car Company, Was Highly Respected by Munger Buffett,” Medium, July 20, 2013, medium.com/@guangxizhang1207/the-legendary-life-of-wang-chuanfu-the-founder-of-chinas-trillion-dollar-car-company-was-highly-76433dbe4be5; and Kevin Xu, “Wang Chuanfu: A Name Everyone in the West Should Know,” Interconnected, February 8, 2024, interconnect.substack.com/p/wang-chuanfu-a-name-everyone-in-the.

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  The tune of his upbringing: Around 790 million people lived in rural China in 1978, and this number would not decline until the late 1980s, when the country urbanized. See Hua Zhang et al., “Evolution and Influencing Factors of China’s Rural Population Distribution Patterns Since 1990,” PLOS One 15, no. 5 (May 2020), doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233637.

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  “Importing batteries from Japan”: Marc Gunther, “Warren Buffett Takes Charge,” Fortune, April 13, 2009, money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/.

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  “He renounced a comfortable”: Li Daqian, Wang Chuanfu: Créateur Innovant (Infini Découverte, 2013), 12.

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  Wang didn’t even understand: “观察│比亚迪：从电池作坊到新能源汽车巨头 多次跨界进军新领域” [BYD: From a Battery Workshop to a New Energy Vehicle Giant: Multiple Crossovers into New Fields], Sohu News, November 13, 2018, sohu.com/a/275199569_275361.

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  Their stakes would later: “观察│比亚迪：从电池作坊到新能源汽车巨头 多次跨界进军新领域,” Sohu News.

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  In the absence of mechanical: River Davis and Selina Cheng, “How China’s BYD Became Tesla’s Biggest Threat,” Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2023.

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  “invented a production pattern”: Li Daqian, The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, trans. Denis Mair (China Intercontinental Press, 2013), 19.

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  the firm was able to: Li, Wang Chuanfu, 22.

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  “So we started to invest”: Robert S. Huckman and Alan D. MacCormack, “BYD Company, Ltd.,” Harvard Business School Case No. 606-139 (HBS Case Collection, April 2006, revised September 15, 2009), 2, hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=33206.

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  the end of the 1980s: Christopher Wood, The Bubble Economy: Japan’s Extraordinary Speculative Boom of the ’80s And the Dramatic Bust of the ’90s (Solstice, 2006), 2.

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  Thanks to innovations like: “Sony to Establish Lithium-Ion Polymer Rechargeable Battery Plant in China,” Sony, September 7, 2007, sony.com/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/200009/00-039E/.

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  the company was not immune: David Pilling, Bending Adversity (Penguin Books, 2014), 170. According to Pilling, “Sony’s biggest failing was its inability to navigate the industry’s transformation from analogue to digital.” Akio Morita, the peppy cofounder of Sony, had pushed for digitalization, but his engineers had rebelled.

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  Chinese companies were making: “Sony to Establish Lithium-Ion Polymer Rechargeable Battery Plant in China.”

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  Samsung was producing: Emi Emoto and Tim Kelly, “Exclusive: Banks Offer to Help Sony Offload Battery Unit—Sources,” Reuters, November 27, 2012.

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  The economics in Korea: Robin Harding, “Beware the Great Battery Industry Fallacy,” Financial Times, February 2, 2023.

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  “the mentality is different”: Japanese battery executive, interview with the author, November 2022.

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  BYD reverse engineered: “Innovations and IPRs Boost BYD’s Profits,” Global Times, October 8, 2010, www.globaltimes.cn/content/579843.shtml.

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  Zeng’s factory was located: Henry Sanderson, Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green (Oneworld, 2022), 39.

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  an estimated 95 percent: Seth Fletcher, Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy (Hill and Wang, 2011), 59.

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  In Wang’s conception of BYD: Li, Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, 38.

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  The company had grown yearly: 2002 Annual Report (BYD Company Ltd., 2003), 5–6.

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  But BYD had also: “China: New Energy Vehicle (NEV) Policy,” DieselNet, dieselnet.com/standards/cn/nev.php.

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  Chinese state prioritized: “The 10th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (2001–2005),” International Energy Agency, iea.org/policies/1736-the-10th-five-year-plan-for-economic-and-social-development-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-2001-2005.

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  BYD profited from government: Monica Miller, “BYD: The Top Electric Car Maker That Is Not Tesla,” BBC News, October 19, 2023; “China: New Energy Vehicle (NEV) Policy”; and “High Tech Research and Development (863) Programme,” Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, October 21, 2003, newyork.china-consulate.gov.cn/eng/xbwz/kjsw/zgkj/200310/t20031021_5431224.htm. In 2001, electric vehicles were included in the Chinese government’s 863 Program, a research-and-development scheme whose goal was, according to the Chinese government, to “select several high technologies in which China has superiority for the breakthrough of industrialization, support the establishment and development of high-tech industries, and make the 863 Programme a starting Point of high-tech industries.” It allocated 880 million renminbi (almost $195 million in 2025 U.S. dollars) to research into strategic new technologies.

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  he was elected deputy: Green Tech for Tomorrow, Annual Report 2008 (BYD Inc., 2009), 17.

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  Wang was joking: Huckman and MacCormack, “BYD Company, Ltd.,” 2.

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  Zeng’s ATL had also: Edward White et al., “China’s ‘Battery King’ Faces Scrutiny over EV Market Dominance,” Financial Times, April 4, 2023.

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  licensed from Bell Labs: Christopher Chico, “CATL’s Success Story: A Strategic Journey of Innovation and Expansion,” The Battery Chronicle, February 2, 2025, https://christopherchico.substack.com/p/catls-success-story-a-strategic-journey.

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  grow to become the world’s: Amy Hawkins, “CATL, the Little-Known Chinese Battery Maker That Has the US Worried,” Guardian, March 18, 2024.

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  the dichotomy was underscored: Yan Zhang and Kevin Krolicki, “China Battery Giant CATL Would Build US Plant If Trump Allows It,” Reuters, November 13, 2024, reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/china-battery-giant-catl-would-build-us-plant-if-trump-allows-it-2024-11-13/.

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  bought 77 percent: Joann Muller, “Thanks, Now Move Over,” Forbes, July 26, 2004.

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  “Due to the limited oil”: Interim Report (BYD Inc., June 2003), 4.

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  “a whole-industry chain”: Li, Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, 22–23.

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  It was perhaps inevitable: Li, 27.

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  Part of Wang’s strategy: Li, 23.

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  BYD was also hard: Li, 20.

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  “We can learn a lot”: Muller, “Thanks, Now Move Over.”

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  was “no longer content”: David Barboza, “China’s Ambition Soars to High-Tech Industry,” New York Times, August 1, 2008, nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/worldbusiness/01factory.html.

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  at the Beijing: “China: New Energy Vehicle (NEV) Policy.”

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  The car would combat: Richard S. Chang, “A Plug-In Hybrid Goes on Sale, in China,” Wheels, New York Times, December 18, 2008, archive.nytimes.com/wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/a-plug-in-hybrid-goes-on-sale-in-china/.

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  Chapter 17: Fire Sale at the Karavia

  Katumba was a young accountant: Bruce Jewels, interview with the author, July 26, 2023.

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  Katumba’s old classmate: Wanzala would later work on supply-chain logistics for UPS, Coca-Cola, and Alstom, among other firms, and settle in Georgia. Other classmates of his and Katumba’s from the Collège Imara Saint François de Sales went on to work for the EU and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Some became pilots. One even worked for NASA. “Thirty or forty of us succeeded so much in life,” he told me. “We are spread across the world.” One need only consider classes like Katumba’s to realize the entrepreneurial and innovative potential that the children in Congo—and, indeed, anywhere—hold. It becomes all the more devastating to think of those whose lives will be spent and cut short working in artisanal mines.

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  Even as their war: A theory popular in some corners of the internet has it that U.S. mining interests unseated Mobutu for their own gain, but this doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. See Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (Oxford University Press, 2009), 139.

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  “We want to know how”: Jean-Philippe Ceppi, “ ‘Business as Usual’: Attirés par la richesse du sous-sol zaïrois, les hommes d’affaires étrangers courtisent Kabila,” Libération, April 19, 1997.

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  The convention gave Anvil: John Cumming, “Anvil Expands Dikulushi Copper-Silver Mine,” Northern Miner, October 18, 2004.

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  Kabila himself arrived: John Pitman, “Kabila Arrives in Lubumbashi,” Voice of America, April 14, 1997.

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  “This is the first time”: “Washington Quandary: The U.S. Government Juggles Carrot and Stick While Business Scoops a Mineral Map,” Africa Confidential 38, no. 19 (September 26, 1997), africa-confidential.com/home/issue/id/434.

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  the U.S. engineering and construction behemoth: Robert Block, “U.S. Firms Seek Deals in Central Africa—Bechtel Woos Congo as Region’s Conflicts Continue to Fester,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 1997.