The Environmental and Human Rights Costs of China’s Clean Energy Investments Abroad

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China’s U.S. embassy, rejected the notion that Chinese investments were violating people’s rights. In an email, Liu said the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, the umbrella for its overseas infrastructure investments, aims to support green economic growth.

“The founding purpose of the BRI is to advance China’s cooperation with partner countries following the principle of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit, to help them develop the economy and shake off poverty, which is a human right they need more than any other,” Liu said.

In Hungary, academics and environmentalists say, the investments have been accelerated by lax oversight and fast-tracked permitting. Orbán’s government eliminated the country’s environment ministry after coming to power in 2010 and has cracked down on protests and dissent more broadly.

After Kozma began speaking out about the battery factories, she became the target of smear campaigns on social media and state-backed news sites that said she was acting on behalf of foreign agents and against the interest of citizens.

She has not backed down, however. As the meeting in the community center last month came to a close, dance music booming through the door from a room down the hall, Kozma struck a defiant tone, looking to draw more people into her cause.

“What the authorities want is to make people believe that they are small, that you cannot do anything,” she said. “If you do care about it, you are an agent, a traitor. You want to defend yourself? You are just a little piece of dust,” Kozma added. “I will defend you.”

The Battery Giant Next Door

The next morning, Kozma drove her red Fiat down a dirt path that dead-ended at railroad tracks. She was joined by Tibor Nemes, the Mikepércs group’s vice president, and they described how the tracks had carried a regional line until the authorities shuttered service because it cut through CATL’s 546-acre lot.

The factory stretches across a series of giant, windowless warehouse-style buildings that already span half a mile. Next to those are muddy lots where more buildings are planned. The site is surrounded by other factories that make cathodes, aluminum cases, battery separator films, gases, all for the EV industry. Just a few years ago, this was farmland.