This year opened with a clash that erupted between Indonesian and Chinese workers at Gunbuster Nickel Industry (GNI), a Chinese-owned nickel processing plant in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, claiming lives from each side.
It’s tempting to count the clash as evidence of rising “anti-Chinese” sentiment. While indeed racial sentiment exists — an old ghost again summoned by the heavily politicized Chinese investment trends in Indonesia — the incident is a symptom of a much more complex labor issue in nickel and very much related to the “green” electric vehicles industry the world is trying to build.
