The Environmental and Human Rights Costs of Chinese Overseas Clean Energy Investments

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the US Embassy in China, rejected the notion that Chinese investments violated people’s rights. In an email, Liu said the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, which oversees its overseas infrastructure investments, aims to support green economic growth.

“The founding goal of the BRI is to advance China’s cooperation with partner countries on the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, to help them develop their economies and get rid of poverty, which is a human right they need more than any other,” Liu said.

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

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

However, she did not back down. As the meeting at the community center last month drew to a close, with dance music blaring through the door of a room down the hall, Kozma struck a defiant tone, seeking to attract more people to his cause.

“What the authorities want is to make people believe that they are small, that there is nothing we can do,” she says. “If you care, 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 his red Fiat down a dirt road that ended at a railroad track. She was joined by Tibor Nemes, vice president of the Mikepércs Group, and they described how the tracks had carried a regional line until officials shut down service because it crossed CATL’s 546-acre land.

The factory spans a series of giant, windowless warehouse-style buildings that already stretch 800 meters. Next to it are muddy fields where other buildings are planned. The site is surrounded by other factories that manufacture cathodes, aluminum casings, battery separator films, gases, all for the electric vehicle industry. Just a few years ago, it was farmland.