In the eight years since Chinese company HBIS bought a steel mill near the eastern Serbian city of Smederevo, locals say they have been plagued by heavy air pollution and thick red dust.
"There are times of the day when breathing normally is impossible," said Zvezdan Veljkovic, from the village of Radinac, where the mill is based.
HBIS -- one of the world's largest steel producers -- bought the mill in 2016 in a high-profile deal marked by a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his last official trip to Serbia. Tvrdjava carried out an analysis of the dust produced by the factory in 2021, together with the scientific group National Environmental Association.
Data from the state-run Smederevo Health Centre found a four-fold increase in cancer cases between 2011 and 2019, which activists believe is due to increased pollution. In April 2016, the plant was sold for 46 million euros to China's HBIS, heralded as a sign of the"friendship" between the two countries.
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