From Mines To Solar Plants, Chinese Projects Face Rare Legal Setbacks In The Balkans

When a 25-year-old Chinese construction worker died at a vast solar power plant site in Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer, few expected the incident to snowball into one of the most significant legal blows against Chinese-backed projects in the country.

The accident at the Aurora Solar site near the southern Bosnian city of Stolac triggered an inspection that uncovered 71 illegal Chinese workers in October. Authorities quickly deported them, halted construction of the $116 million project, and opened investigations into the possible misuse of public land in November.

For a region where Chinese infrastructure investments are often shielded by political alliances and government patronage, the move marked a rare setback for China's economic footprint in the Balkans and a successful instance of public resistance to Chinese projects.

Experts say officials in the region have often embraced Chinese capital as fast money for energy and infrastructure development at the expense of protecting the environment and upholding labor laws.

"Chinese companies behave in the Balkans the way they are allowed to do so," Vuk Vuksanovic, a senior researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, told RFE/RL.

Broken Promises, Environmental Concerns

Following months of legal wrangling and pressure from the local community, a government inspector effectively blocked any new construction at the solar power plant site in Stolac.

Residents like Arman Ajanic had raised concern that facilities for the project were built closer to populated areas than originally presented to the public and that construction could bring environmental and safety risks such as landslides.

"The location is a proven landslide-prone area and has a slope toward residential houses," Ajanic told RFE/RL. "Our neighbor Elmira Sefo was killed by a landslide caused by an earthquake. Having learned from these negative experiences, we simply did not want to sit idly by."

SEE ALSO: Leaked Files Reveal Serbia's Secret Expansion Of Chinese-Made Surveillance

He added that locals began their legal campaign to stop the project in January, spending hours each day researching the relevant laws.

"This should not be the job of ordinary citizens but of institutions," Ajanic said.

The mayor's office, who led the effort to build the plant, did not respond to RFE/RL's request for comment.

Kemal Svrakic, the lawyer for China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), the Chinese company building the solar project, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service last month that all the workers arrived legally and he had filed all the necessary paperwork for each of them.

'Free Rein To The Chinese’

The solar plant near Stolac is the latest high-profile project being built or managed by Chinese state-owned firms across the Balkans that has recently become embroiled in controversy and stalled due to local pushback.

There is the hydropower plant in the village of Ulog in southern Bosnia, where locals have for years pointed to environmental damage and mass fish die-offs. An investigation has now been opened into the cause of the fish deaths.

There is also the Bistrica hydropower plant in Bosnia whose building permit was revoked and which faced a local backlash.

The construction site for a solar power plant near Stolac, several days after the inspection found illegal Chinese workers.

The projects have faced public blowback for similar reasons, including circumventing local laws around labor, the environment, and land ownership.

Researchers like Vuksanovic said these issues derive from Balkan politicians' attempts to get an influx of Chinese investment into the country and benefit from a web of newfound capital.

"All of the concerns about illegal labor, the environment, and the expropriation of land exist because local elites give free rein to the Chinese so that a project can get completed," Vuksanovic said. "If you allow companies to operate without clear rules, this is what can happen."

Both Aurora Solar, which is developing the solar plant project, and NORINCO, the contractor, maintain that all necessary permits were obtained in accordance with the law. Neither company has said it plans to challenge the decision.

A Pattern Across The Balkans

Across the border in Serbia, however, local opposition has struggled to break through.

SEE ALSO: 'We Can Barely Open A Window': Residents Grapple With Pollution From Chinese Copper Mine In Serbia

In the eastern mining hub of Bor, which is home to Serbia's only copper mining complex, residents accuse the Chinese conglomerate Zijin Mining Group of land grabs, causing pollution, and disregarding their livelihoods. But years of legal battles have brought little progress.

Miodrag Zivkovic from the village of Slatina said he lost seven hectares of land in 2020 after receiving an expropriation order from the government to take his property for public use.

Zivkovic is now in a legal dispute with the Chinese mining company Zijin because it is listed as the beneficiary of the expropriation, even though the Serbian government had carried it out on the company’s behalf.

He said the authorities have gone to great lengths to accommodate Zijin and sidestepped legal procedures in the process.

Residents in villages around Bor have repeatedly protested over poor air quality and damage to their homes, visible here near the mine’s open pit in 2024.

"The Finance Ministry issued a decision allowing the company to take possession before compensating me, citing the urgency of the project," Zivkovic explained to RFE/RL. "Instead of instructing the company to pay the compensation set by law, the ministry sided with them."

Serbia Zijin Mining, the Chinese firm's local subsidiary that controls much of the former state-run Bor complex, insists it acquired most of the land on a voluntary basis and only a small portion was expropriated after the state designated the area for "public interest."

Zivkovic, who depends on a small disability pension, said he lost not just land but his entire livelihood. He added that the mining in Bor has led to air pollution with high concentrations of arsenic.

"There is no such thing as a green mine, especially not here where the mining company is Chinese," Zivkovic said, referring to the heavy environmental impact of mining. "This is certainly not true when we consider the results of air quality measures conducted by our Mining Institute in Bor. It is a disaster."

Since China's Zijin Mining Group acquired Serbia's only copper and precious metals producer in 2018, it has become one of the country's largest exporters, with earnings nearing 1 billion euros by the end of 2024.

For Belgrade, such investments showcase a model partnership often described by Chinese and Serbian leaders Xi Jinping and Aleksandar Vucic as a "steel friendship."

SEE ALSO: Chinese Migrants Increasingly Turn To Balkan Route To Reach Europe

But some residents say that alliance has come at a steep cost, one measured not in economic promise but in lost land, polluted air, and unenforced court rulings.

"It's tough to get any company to fully respect environmental laws in your country, but it's even more difficult when the local and national governments are complicit in doing this too," Damir Dizdarevic, who tracks Chinese investments in the Balkans for the Belgrade-based BFPE Foundation for a Responsible Society, told RFE/RL.

China's Green Pivot

Vladimir Shopov, an expert on China in the Balkans at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Balkan countries are a convenient springboard for Chinese companies to build their portfolios and fine-tune their operations so they can meet the more stringent business and environmental standards of the European Union and compete in its single market.

"While its long-term goals -- political positioning in future EU member states, building networks of friendly local actors, and gaining influence in key policy and economic sectors -- remain the same, Beijing is expanding its toolkit to achieve these goals," Shopov wrote in an analysis earlier this month.

SEE ALSO: What Is Behind Serbia And China's 'Ironclad Friendship'?

China's investments in renewable energy, including wind and solar power, are a major pillar of that new toolkit.

State subsidies and a massive manufacturing base have turned China into the world's largest and most cost-effective producer of solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles.

In recent years, Chinese institutions have also bankrolled green-energy projects across the world as Beijing looks to rebrand its global image from a top polluter to green investor and shore up business for its companies abroad.

Across the Balkans, Chinese state-owned firms have often funded these green energy projects using local intermediaries to navigate loose legal systems and weak oversight.

SEE ALSO: Chinese Wind Farms In Bosnia Spotlight Clash Of Interests, Corruption In The Heart Of The Balkans

But as Stolac shows, this strategy can backfire when local communities push back. What began as a tragic workplace death ended with the dismantling of an entire venture.

Ajanic said he and locals from Stolac are banding together with other activists across the country to prepare additional legal steps against similar projects where they believe the law has been circumvented.

"We joined a national alliance demanding lawful management of public land," he said. "We've engaged institutions at all levels because a healthy environment and lawful procedures don’t have a price."