♪ (engine running).

♪ MILORAD ZIVKOVIC: I guess you've heard about the problems?

What can I say?

I am Milorad Zivkovic.

I'm from this village, Slatina.

I was a metallurgist.

But now I do a little bit of agriculture.

I work in my field.

I have a machine in the garage.

Currently, I earn about 14,000 Dinars per month.

That's about 110 dollars.

We're not in an envious situation right now.

Of course, the Chinese came here for profit.

The Chinese didn't come here to make life better for me or my neighbors.

No, the Chinese came to work and earn and to take everything they can.

It started with the re-opening of the mine.

They've cranked up production.

And with that, the pollution in the air.

Heart diseases, lung illnesses, cancers.. cardiovascular illnesses.

It's caused by dangerous stuff coming from the mine in Bor.

But what do I know.

The truth is I don't care at all about politics.

I would love nothing more than not knowing who is the President of the country.

But they wouldn't allow it.

The government put us aside, and they gave it to the Chinese.

♪ NARRATOR: Where does a story begin?

It's always a difficult question.

In this ancient part of southeast Europe, it's almost impossible to answer.

Does this story begin with the fall of Yugoslavia?

With the wars of the 1990s?

Or the recent rise of populist politics?

Does it begin with the European Union's inability to incorporate the Balkans?

Or with the rise of new global partners that don't ask many questions when doing business?

Is it a story that starts with what has already happened in East Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, or with what's to come in the future as new powers encroach closer and closer upon the old?

Where does a story begin?

For the purposes of this particular story, we begin in Bor, an old mining town in eastern Serbia where China has invested billions of dollars in one of Europe's most polluted cities.

♪ (hydraulic hammering).

MAN: I remember my children playing here.

Spending time with their grandmother.

My family and I lived off this land for over 100 years.

We all worked.

We plowed the land.

Life was pretty good.

We didn't know anything better.

And we didn't need it.

Then we found out the Chinese wanted to extend the mine and open it here.

I said that I didn't want to sell my land.

I didn't want somebody to find a piece of paper someday that said... that this old man sold his family's land for peanuts.

"Everyone is selling", they said.

And now you are a problem.

That's when everything went to hell.

And they seized the land.

They haven't paid me anything.

But they took the land.

Everyone has turned their backs on us.

Here in Serbia, everything is for sale.

(hydraulic hammer) ♪ ANDREW HIGGINS: Bor is a very depressed town in southern Serbia, which has extraordinary reserves of copper and gold.

NARRATOR: In 1897, Serbian industrialists backed by French capital, discovered copper ore in a region then called Tilva Ros.

Ever since, Bor has been a mining town, drawing men and women from around Serbia with a promise of employment.

WOMAN: The people of Bor, we sleep on top of gold but we wake up in mud.

NARRATOR: In recent years, as production and profits plummeted, Serbia sought an international partner to take on the mine.

It struggled to find one.

ANDREW HIGGINS: And the smelter was going bankrupt.

The Chinese came in saved it from bankruptcy, saved the jobs, and have taken over the whole area and they are basically running the Bor municipality at the moment.

NARRATOR: In 2018, Zijin Mining, a Chinese state-owned company offered to invest over $1.2 billion in the mine.

In exchange for majority ownership and control.

MARINIKA TEPIC: The Chinese factories are protected like an endangered species.

It's based on a bilateral agreement that puts it above domestic laws.

Serbian inspectors are not allowed to enter the factory in Bor.

ANDREW HIGGINS: Zijin Mining is the dominant power in that part of Serbia.

They don't have to worry about pesky bureaucrats in Brussels raising questions.

They certainly don't have to worry about pesky, uh, Serbian officials raising questions.

No one has any real idea what they're doing.

WOMAN: 10 or 15 detonations per day, maybe more.

They started to blast, dig, and drill.

The windows started to break first, then the walls.

NARRATOR: Upon gaining control, Zijin Mining began to ramp up production and expand the mine into surrounding villages.

WOMAN: Every time they blasted, something changed.

There is less and less water in this well.

SASCHA VOLDULOVIC: With the arrival of this company, the mine was expanded.

Buildings started being torn down of residents of the village Krivelj.

It was a complete removal of the entire village of Krivelj.

WOMAN 2: Four Hectares.

In the end they took it as property seizure.

They tore down everything, even the fruit.

And they haven't paid a dime to this day.

It's all theirs!

They say it was approved by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

SASCHA VOLDULOVIC: This graveyard has more than 3,000 graves.

The company demands that the graveyard be relocated because of the expansion of the mine in that area.

Grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, buried in that graveyard.

WOMAN 2: I am not literate, and I am not involved in politics.

I respect whoever is governing.

But I am interested in my life.

I am poor and miserable.

You've taken my land.

I don't have a pension.

How am I supposed to live?

WOMAN: One day it will all just collapse.

We will disappear.

And the Chinese will stay.

NARRATOR: As mining activities have increased in Bor, so has the impact on the regions environment.

MILENKO JOVANOVIC: Bor is a devastated city in every way.

The presence of heavy metals such as arsenic exceeds 50 times its annual limits.

IRENA ZIVKOVIC: The town of Bor never had great air because it's a mining and industrial town.

We have always had pollution.

But never like this.

In the air, you're currently inhaling sulphur dioxide, You're inhaling heavy metals.

You're inhaling particles which are sticking to your lungs and will never be able to leave your body.

MILORAD ZIVKOVIC: In the waste water, you have the same as in the air.

From sulphur dioxide, arsenic, nickel, cadmium, lead, probably even mercury.

The entire Periodic Table of Elements.

What production can justify the poisoning of your own residents?

DUSAN NIKEZIC: The rationale for the Chinese investment is that they take care of their environment and they are moving the dirty technology from China abroad.

In China, they are heavily investing in green technology while in Serbia, they are transferring dirty technology and in every aspect of what they do, they are polluting the Serbian environment.

MILORAD ZIVKOVIC: All relatively young people.

The cemetery in Bor is overfilled, our cemetery in town is overfilled.

They're simply dying.

MAN 2: I suggest that President Vucic lines us up and shoots us.

ANNOUNCER: Please greet the President of the Serbian Progressive Party and our President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

(applause and cheering).

NARRATOR: Aleksandar Vucic has served as President of Serbia since 2017.

He was Serbia's Prime Minister for four years before that.

Vucic's rise began during the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, where he served as Minister of Information through years of bloody conflict.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: Come and bomb us.

Kill one Serb and we will kill 100 Muslims.

NARRATOR: He has since tried to distance himself from the hard right... MAN: Serbia!

NARRATOR: Shifting to a more populist approach.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: And most important for me is the new factories.

We will build more!

We will build more factories!

We will bring our people back from abroad!

And we will make their lives better.

PREDRAG MARKOVIC: He is a leader, provider.

He has accomplished the impression that he's the most important provider of everything.

Salaries, pocket money for students and teenagers and it is a very strong impression.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: There is no going back, there is not going back to the past!

Let's go forward!

Let's go to the future!

Belgrade is moving forward!

Serbia is moving forward!

Long live Serbia!

(cheering and applause).

MARINIKA TEPIC: They have no political program.

There is no ideology.

No official policy.

It's one man, who is everything and all things in Serbia.

But laws don't exist.

The constitution doesn't exist.

There is no division of government, no independent judicial system, no independent prosecutors or courts.

Independent institutions simply do not exist.

There is no system.

MILOS JOVANOVIC: I can tell many negative things about him, but you cannot discharge some facts.

He is loved by a portion of the population.

He's really loved.

WOMAN: As I see it, he takes care of us.

He gives us a bit of a pension.

However much, it's thanks to him.

WOMAN 2: He's a young man, tenacious, and he fights for Serbia.

For us, for the retired people.

ZORAN GAVROLOVIC: Vucic voters come from both the left and the right of the political spectrum.

And their support is for him, personally.

MAN: He attracts so many foreign investors, and that automatically gives young people the opportunity to live and work here.

WOMAN 2: I support him in every way.

WOMAN: I'm satisfied!

Yes, I am.

ANDREW HIGGINS: Is it a democracy?

They have elections, they count the votes reasonably fairly and the person who gets the most votes wins.

But the structure around that, those mechanics is beyond deeply flawed.

DRAGAN DILAS: Serbia is not a democracy.

The elections are a sham.

People who work in public companies, and now even private ones are under tremendous pressure to vote for and to get their friends to vote for the party to keep their job.

DUSAN NIKEZIC: Over 3 million people, which is the majority of Serbian people, are basically living very close to poverty.

PREDRAG MARKOVIC: There is no real economic life except state service.

It is a matter of life and death being in the, in the right party.

NARRATOR: Under Vucic, any opposition has faced increased pressure.

From human rights protestors... WOMAN: I was beaten so brutally by these young men.

No uniforms - just street clothes.

NARRATOR: To opposition candidates.

(overlapping chatter).

MARINIKA TEPIC: They threw an animal at me.

I was trying to give a speech at a conference for journalists.

NARRATOR: To environmental whistle blowers.

MILENKO JOVANOVIC: I was fired so that I could not draw further attention to what was happening.

DEJAN LEKIC: I was punished because I was, I was loud enough to say, "This is not normal, why are you doing this?"

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, President Vucic has consolidated control over the country's media.

BOSKO JAKSIC: People are not informed, uh, they don't know it.

Close to 70% of the Serbian population is informed only by the public TV service under control of the Vucic government.

And then it's easy to manipulate after because people just don't know.

MAN: The regime media just publishes the regime narrative.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: Please continue to attack me in the future.

IVANA GORDIC: When he starts to talk about journalists as a threat, all of his followers are doing the same.

ZELJKO BODROZIC: They start by breaking you financially.

If that fails, they switch to other types of pressure.

And then comes the physical and other attacks on independent journalists.

IVANA GORDIC: Life here seems like a deep, quiet ocean, but under the water, situation is completely different.

Under the water are sharks ready to bite.

DAVID LAMPTON: China deals with governments and societies as it finds them.

If you have a high standard, rule of law country and a Chinese corporation comes in, it's going to behave, at least in a more, rule-based way.

On the other hand, if there is no rule of law and it is only corrupt, they're perfectly capable of dealing with that.

Much of our commentary about China and its behavior in the world puts it in an ideological frame.

I would say it's at least as much an issue of, of pragmatism.

DAVID DOLLAR: The Chinese banks and construction companies, and resource companies all involved in all this...

They expect to make money.

They are a major importer of many different types of commodities.

Mostly sell it back in China and they're gonna make a profit.

DAVID LAMPTON: But also, small and poorer countries want to get rich and the operative question from their viewpoint is, "Who's gonna help us do that?"

DAVID DOLLAR: The Chinese say they're gonna build a road and a year later you have a road, you know, and Western institution like the World Bank says they're gonna build a road, it might take 10 years, maybe it'll never happen.

DAVID LAMPTON: If you look at the way the US has defined development and so on, it's building institutions for good governance.

Well, frankly, when you're poor roads probably appeal to you more than institutions.

NARRATOR: Beginning in the twenty-first century, the Chinese government and Chinese state-owned enterprises rapidly increased investment and trade with a series of African countries.

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE: Africa, of course, is the continent of the future.

It has all the resources that the world needs to survive, oil, natural gas.

First, when we talk about green energy, water for hydro-electric power.

China needs resources, China needs its own sphere of influence.

They don't put a lot of preconditions.

They don't ask questions about human rights, they don't ask questions about freedom of speech, and all that kind of democracy speak.

YUN SUN: China itself is not a democracy.

The Chinese realize once you introduce those criteria, projects are not gonna happen.

That defeats the Chinese purpose of trying to use these projects to build economic ties and also to strengthen political ties in order to build China's strategic influence.

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE: The Chinese will not need to feel comfortable.

They roll with the punches, they, they, they go along with the place.

They accept it as is and they take advantage of it.

NARRATOR: For Latin America, the access to increased Chinese financing and trade sparked a period of high growth.

FRANCISCO GONZALEZ: China just came in as a player with significant amounts of, of cash rather than promises.

PEPE ZHANG: A key drive, or a key objective from a Chinese perspective is to secure the kind of natural resources that's necessary for supporting and sustaining domestic economic growth.

Uh, and of course, these resources are not exactly or readily available in China.

FRANCISCO GONZALEZ: Energy, hydrocarbons, minerals, grains, meat, lithium, copper, iron ore, orange, banana, you name it.

Latin America has a lot to offer China.

NARRATOR: Now in the Balkans, China has expanded this model into Europe.

YUN SUN: What alternatives do the recipient countries have?

So, if it's not Chinese money, then there's no money.

NARRATOR: A key question emerges.

Is this just normal large country behavior or is it something more concerning?

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE: The Chinese are not unique when it comes to exploiting a place and taking advantage of it.

The Chinese use the same model everybody else.

The model is exploitation.

The model is taking resources and the model calls for maximization of profit.

FRANCISCO GONZALEZ: The West has been in Latin America since the sixteenth century.

Portugal, Spain, and later the Dutch.

The English, the French, the Danes, the Swedes.

DAVID LAMPTON: It's interesting how Westerners look at it as an aggressive move when China invests in Italy and Greece, right?

But the United States doesn't give a second thought to if it wants to invest in Vietnam.

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE: So what, it's a Chinese company or a US company or French company?

That is the game.

NARRATOR: Yet, access to Chinese capital can sustain governments that don't follow the democratic norms the European Union and the United States claim to support.

DAVID DOLLAR: Chinese financing has to make it a little bit more sustainable for these authoritarian countries to continue to be authoritarian countries.

YUN SUN: This also buys China a lot of influence on the ground.

If you think about it, if you owe China $1 billion US dollars, then when China says, "You need to vote a certain way on the issue of Taiwan at the United Nations" you are going to.

So, this economic influence does translate into inter-political influence.

DAVID LAMPTON: If we're irrelevant economically to much of the world of the future, then, you know, what's our political power gonna be?

And I think you have to assume if you increase the capability of people who do not recognize norms...

They're not gonna recognize some norms you care a lot about.

Democracy is not a permanent condition.

NARRATOR: Chinese investments in Africa, Latin America, or the Balkans are most often not gifts.

The development projects are structured as loans.

These can be very expensive, especially for small countries.

VUK VUKSANOVIC: And that puts that country in a subservient position where Beijing either has the capability to seize critical infrastructure, critical asset as a collateral, or perhaps where Beijing can simply dictate the, the political terms.

This does imply always a hypothetical risk of what the experts call, "Death-trap Diplomacy".

♪ NARRATOR: Montenegro, a country on Serbia's southwest border, managed to quickly become heavily indebted to China.

Now, 8 years after taking on substantial loans for infrastructure projects, the country has little to show for it.

ANDREW HIGGINS: In Montenegro, where the previous government decided to take loans for a $900 million road.

That road, so far, has barely been built.

It's a beautiful, state-of-the-art project but it goes from absolutely nowhere to nowhere.

It's nearly bankrupted the government of Montenegro and the terms of that loan are a state secret.

DRITAN ABAZOVIC: In 2014 we get the credits, which is around 1 billion of Euro.

In that moment, it was more than 25, maybe around 30% of GDP.

1 billion Euro is huge, huge, money for this country.

One of the most expensive highways in the world only for 43 kilometers from nowhere to nowhere.

VUK VUKSANOVIC: All the Western institutions believe that, uh, the project was unviable from the financial and monetary standpoint.

So, what happened?

They went to Beijing who was willing both to finance the credit line for construction of this project and to put its own construction companies to work.

NARRATOR: In 2022 an initial portion of the highway finally opened, but the debt to China grows.

MILE LAZAREVIC: That's what happens when irresponsible governments take on major projects.

The annual payments to China will be between 90 and 100 million euros.

And we would earn 10-15 million euros per year from the finished highway.

The difference would have to be financed from the national budget.

VANJA CALOVIC: It's never really going to pay itself because that's what the studies have shown, but if we don't continue it then we will be having an even bigger problem.

The contract clearly says that they could estimate whether we can or we cannot pay.

If we cannot pay the debt, then China could ask for part of our territory.

It's really unclear because it's not written anywhere how they can decide which part of the territory.

Who's going to decide, uh, how much that territory is worth?

Of course they will take something strategically important, they wouldn't take the mountains.

I mean, they would take something that makes political sense, economic sense, and we saw with other countries that those are mainly ports or mines and natural resources that the country has.

(hard rain).

ANDREWS HIGGINS: No one knows the terms of the deal and more importantly, who got the kickbacks for that deal.

MILE LAZAREVIC: All the documents for the project were declared state secrets.

The perfect way for everything to be hidden.

ZDRAVKO KRIVOKAPIC: We know that many of the Montenegro companies involved have direct ties to the former government.

So, politicians connected to those companies are directly benefiting themselves.

The people who designed the deal did a very good job covering their tracks.

Because the Highway Law they passed basically protects everyone who participated.

IVAN BRAJEVIC: My name is Ivan Brajevic.

I'm the President of the Social Democrats in Montenegro.

Today we are the second most powerful opposition party in the Parliament of Montenegro.

I was the minister who signed the contract with the Chinese partners.

I firmly reject allegations of corruption prior to signing the contract.

Look, this highway is extremely important.

Montenegro doesn't have modern roads or a good railway.

It is mostly just accessible by air.

You have to think about long-term economic potential.

From a financial standpoint, China provided the cheapest options and gave the best conditions for construction.

ANDREW HIGGINS: Western banks, they were willing to discuss offering loans but there were so many strings attached to the loan and their main interest was, "Is this an economically viable project?"

Which it clearly isn't.

But for the Chinese company, what they care about, is just having a contract.

They don't really, they're not bothered about whether they're producing something that's actually useful to anyone.

DRITAN ABAZOVIC: They say that EU is not so dedicated, it's not so fast in moving in some projects.

They see the politician which are not so strong in the principles and they use the situation.

VANJA CALOVIC: China just exploited the opportunity, the political and geo-strategical opportunity they saw in a corrupted government.

NARRATOR: The flaunting of environmental safety, the loans without public oversight, the opaque labor standards.

These shortcuts would be less likely if the Balkan countries were part of the European Union.

Not so long ago, the idea of Western Balkan countries joining the EU did not seem so remote.

REPORTER: Serbia begins its negotiations to join the European Union this month kicking off years of talks aimed at bringing thousands of pieces of national law and legislation into line with EU standards.

SRDAN MAJSTOROVIC: At that time the enthusiasm was present on both sides.

Seems that Serbia had set membership of the European Union as its ultimate political and economic goal.

NARRATOR: Back then, Serbia's number one cheerleader to join the EU was a young Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic.

REPORTER: Aleksandar Vucic, you say that Serbia deserves those talks.

Explain to me why.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: People are ready for changes in our country.

And we're gonna show to the whole world, to the European Union, that if you're a part of the Europe, that we can do in the same way and the same manner as you do.

NARRATOR: But the timing was all wrong.

Over the next decade, the EU lurched from one crisis to the next.

A financial crisis, an immigration crisis, Brexit, anti-EU populism.

All forces served to limit the EU's appetite for expansion.

BOSKO JAKSIC: It was 2003 when the EU promised the countries of the western Balkans that doors are open.

For nearly two decades, we're listening to the same mantra.

PREDRAG MARKOVIC: It is really becoming a little bit boring because conditions are, "You win, you win" there is always something extra you should do for full membership.

SRDAN MAJSTOROVIC: I think the EU was not interested in the region for, for a long, long time.

REPORTER: European Commission presidential candidate Jean-Claude Juncker has said it's time for the European Union to take a break from its expansion plans.

"Sometimes in Europe, we have to think before we take action."

SRDAN MAJSTOROVIC: And that was the gun that kickstarted a lack of interest for any serious reforms.

NARRATOR: A narrative emerged in the Balkans that they were being led on.

PREDRAG MARKOVIC: Consider Turkish example.

The Turks have been waiting for 40 years to become members and they gave up.

They don't care anymore.

NARRATOR: After 15 years of discussions, Macedonia even changed its name to North Macedonia to settle a dispute with Greece and speed up the process of joining the EU.

They are still waiting.

SRDAN MAJSTOROVIC: President Vucic said that, openly, said, "I don't trust the EU.

You see what they did to Macedonia?

These poor guys.

They've changed their names and they haven't started to, to negotiate still.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Serbia also cooled on the idea of joining the EU.

As this would require significant reforms.

SRDAN MAJSTOROVIC: The EU standards mean clean water, fresh air.

Acceding to the EU requires full implementation of the rule of law.

Implementation of the honest approach and fight against organized crime, against corruption.

The incumbent government decided that the cost of the EU accession might be too high.

NARRATOR: A vacuum emerged in the region.

Balkan leaders found a new partner willing to fill it.

SRECKO DUKIC: So then, here comes China.

They don't have any political conditions and they have no problem approving financial loans.

And the government in Belgrade is quite happy to accept it.

ANDREW HIGGINS: It's the perfect deal and I get the money, I don't have to answer too many questions, I can make good for my voters and say I've boosted economic growth.

And that's I think the biggest danger of this whole, um, situation is the Chinese approach to, not just business, politics, but life are being transplanted into Europe.

NARRATOR: As the Chinese and Serbian governments get closer, the cooperation has extended beyond copper and highways.

DANILO KRIVOKAPIC: Here you can see these cameras that are implemented in this system.

They can also be used for facial recognition and there is a 360 cameras that can move and, and capture faces.

NARRATOR: Over the last decade in China, Beijing has implemented a far-reaching, technically advanced, public surveillance system.

Smart cameras that can recognize biometrics, track citizen movement and even detect attitudes have blanketed Chinese cities.

DAVID LAMPTON: If somebody wants to buy surveillance equipment and find out how to surveil society to maximize control, they'll export the systems that'll let you do that.

NARRATOR: Beginning in 2019, the Serbian government began installing smart cameras, produced by Huawei, all across Belgrade.

ANDREJ PETROVSKI: They're not just regular, uh, CCTV cameras.

They're, they do have smart capabilities.

They can detect the face, they can detect the vehicle, they can detect license plates.

DANILO KRIVOKAPIC: This means that not just the criminals, but every citizen could be, uh, surveilled, followed the whole time, and their personal data being stored in some data center or command centers of police.

We are quite afraid of what our government can do.

ANDREJ PETROVSKI: Especially to activists, investigative journalists, and similar categories of people who do have a very prominent public role and social life.

VUK VUKSANOVIC: We are seeing how these cameras are being used in China by the Chinese authority to control their population or to suppress and arrest minorities.

So, this does tell us something about the risk of China's national security model can be replicated in, in places like Serbia.

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: The cameras remain, but the Serbian government contends that their smart functions are not being used.

ANDREJ PETROVSKI: Belgrade being the first city on European soil to implement such a system does say something about the context in which the system has been set up...

Both for the Chinese partners and for the government here, it was a good opportunity to test out the system on European soil.

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: Back in Bor, the Chinese investments bring concerns but they also bring jobs.

SASCHA VOLDULOVIC: We're going to work.

We can't be late.

NARRATOR: Sascha Voldulovic works at Zijin Mining.

SASCHA VOLDULOVIC: Second shift.

NARRATOR: He is critical of the mine's impact on his village, but he needs the job.

SASCHA VOLDULOVIC: We're going to work, to work and to earn.

I have been working in that company for 35 years.

I used to work there when it was RTB Bor, in state ownership.

Many things have been improved in the areas of automation and parts.

New machines arrived, new plants have been built.

Working conditions are actually better now.

Our pay is up a little bit.

Still too low, but increased.

PREDRAG MARKOVIC: As a common citizen you see only good things from Chinese investments.

It is difficult to estimate, is it better to have some degree of pollution or not to have factory at all.

DAVID LAMPTON: And so the Chinese offer of infrastructure and investment and trade with these countries is very attractive.

WOMAN: Everyone likes the Chinese for the jobs.

They don't feel the impact we do.

WOMAN 2: My daughter is unemployed, my granddaughter too.

My grandson works in Zinjin Copper.

My son works there, too.

What could he do?

He's 50 years old.

Where else can he go?

WOMAN: We don't love the fact that our son works for the Chinese.

Sometimes he's happy with the money.

Sometimes no.

But what can we do.

I tell him to go and complain to Chinese, not to me!

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: By early 2022, election season in Serbia is in full swing.

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: The opposition boycotted the previous election.

This time it is competing in full force with Marinika Tepi as its candidate for Prime Minister.

MARINIKA TEPIC: We want to show the whole world what the truth looks like in Serbia.

NARRATOR: It is an election the opposition will almost certainly lose.

BOSKO JAKSIC: It's nearly 100% sure that Vucic will get another mandate.

Elections are not the proof that democracy exists.

NARRATOR: In Bor, beneath the smog of the mines, environmental activist, Irena Zivkovic is running for office as part of the opposition.

IRENA ZIVKOVIC: Since 2015, we've been trying to save our town and save ourselves, our children, and our health.

Good afternoon, here you go.

MAN: What's this?

IRENA ZIVKOVIC: Do you think we're ever able to solve the pollution in the town?

NARRATOR: It is not an easy task.

IRENA ZIVKOVIC: So you can read a little bit about the environment here.

Have you heard that the country did research finding that in the past two years many people have been dying of cancer in Bor?

They don't need to poison us so much.

BOSKO JAKSIC: Elections are stolen by the system, before the elections.

You have all those working in the public institutions who are blackmailed to vote for the ruling party.

Otherwise, they will lose the job.

In fact, majority of people are not voting for President Vucic or his progressive party.

They're voting for their own existence.

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: The dace of democracy continues.

The participants play their roles in anticipation of a predetermined outcome.

The impact of Chinese investment fades to the background.

(singing in native language).

NARRATOR: Yet, as China expands into the Balkans, concerns extend beyond environment, beyond a lack of transparency, and to the very labor standards Europe has championed.

DUSAN NIKEZIC: In 2019, Linglong began building the largest tire factory in this part of Europe.

The planned production involves an estimated 14 million tires a year.

That's 40,000 tires per day.

Serbia gave them 80 million Euros in subsidies, provided them with 100 hectares of the best and highest quality land completely free of charge.

Not a lease for 10, 20 or 99 years, but it has been transferred to permanent ownership.

Workers from their factories have been here for 5 years without respecting the laws of the Republic of Serbia.

They work exclusively according to the laws of the People's Republic of China.

IVANA GORDIC: Linglong is a state within the state.

Linglong is a product of one contract signed between our and the Chinese government and we are not allowed to find out the details of that contract.

No, Linglong does not follow Serbian laws at all.

DUSAN NIKEZIC: By arranging such deals, Serbia has to engage with Chinese construction companies, Chinese workers.

A small number of Serbians are working on the construction of Linglong.

But most workers are brought from different Asian countries.

DANILO CURCIC: They are not aware that they were going to work with a Chinese company and they, they thought it's going to be a German company.

That's, that's what they told us.

IVANA GORDIC: Yes, they elected to come here and they're extremely poor.

For me, that's the example of the human trafficking.

NARRATOR: Most of the foreign workers live in these facilities on the outskirts of the factory.

But in late 2019, local journalist, Ivana Gordic, made a startling discovery.

IVANA GORDIC: If you don't go there, you, you don't know that that part of the industrial zone exists.

NARRATOR: Vietnamese workers hidden, living off-site in deplorable conditions.

IVANA GORDIC: They were not allowed to go out and their poor life was here.

People were in those two small houses, were shelter for 750 people from Vietnam and China and they had only that one yellow generator for, for, for all of them.

DANILO CURCIC: It was two water heaters for 430 workers.

Half a liter per person, I would say, actually of hot water.

Without electricity, without heating, without safe drinking water, without sanitation.

IVANA GORDIC: They had only two bathrooms for, for 600 people.

They had no sewage and all that water... You had a small lake that's, that's dirty water.

DANILO CURCIC: It's the accommodation where you would not really put, uh, animals in.

MAN: No water, no electric.

INTERVIEWER: Do you have your passports with you?

MAN 2: No, no, no, I don't have anything with me.

IVANA GORDIC: But you don't have basic things?

MAN 3: Yeah, basic, basic, no, no electric, no water.

Small water, small electric and no medicine and the health, everything not good.

Only work.

They are supposed to work 10 to 11 hours a day.

Structure for only four days off.

On top of that, the problem is that they were not provided with, uh, documentation, labor permit.

There was no health insurance for them, there was no COVID protection at all and there was literally no one that they would be able to speak to about all these problems.

IVANA GORDIC: We saw their contract and it is correct that they have, uh, $600 or $700 or $800 per month.

That's true.

But they do not receive that money because their managers, they always find some mistake.

So, every day they took a part of their salary.

We found people who were not paid for four months.

They are very poor and they came here looking for a better life.

But they were tricked, unfortunately, here in my country.

That's the, that's why I'm so bitter.

For me, it's worse than a prison.

For me, it's a concentration camp.

NARRATOR: Now that specific camp is closed, but other questions about working conditions at the Linglong tire factory remain unanswered.

MAN: Thank you.

I appreciate Serbian people.

Serbia treats China very well.

They always help the Chinese who live here.

I appreciate it.

I've been staying here for almost two years.

I feel happy here.

I feel like I do in China.

I feel at home here.

Everything in life is excellent here.

Thank you, Serbian people.

Thank you.

IVANA GORDIC: Thank you.

(chanting in native language).

DUSAN NIKEZIC: What China does in Serbia is a test for Europe.

And Serbia is witnessing dirty technologies coming, construction projects without tenders.

Serbia is also the first country, which is implementing the Chinese face recognition technology.

These are all warning signs that what can happen if Europe doesn't care more about Serbia.

NARRATOR: On April 3, 2022, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic won reelection in a landslide.

Securing nearly 60% of the vote.

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC: The big question for us is what do we want to do with our country in the future?

Do we want to continue this modernization?

Do we want to continue with the foreign direct investment?

It is impossible for you to spoil my mood tonight.

(cheering and applause).

NARRATOR: Where does the story end?

Does it end with election results, the completion of a tire factory?

The creation of a new mine, the transition to a new power?

Perhaps this is a story under construction with no clear ending in sight.

But for the purposes of this story, the end is the beginning.

In Bor, a small mining town in eastern Serbia.

MILORAD ZIVKOVIC: I remember that my father got a severance check when he retired, after working 40 years in the mine.

He used it to buy a chainsaw.

I guess it would be about 20 dollars today.

That was his reward after 40 years.

20 dollars.

Now my son has just finished school.

He is currently unemployed.

We'll see.

Probably he will end up in the Zinjin mine.

That scares me because of the polluted conditions.

Earning money so you can spend it later on medical treatment... that's not a job.

(music plays through credits).