Producer
Direction
Producer
Genre
Transmitter
Length
Editor
Year
In no other region of Europe does China represent its geostrategic interests as confidently as in the Balkans. The documentary analyzes how China is reinforcing the authoritarian course of some governments in these countries, creating dependencies and thus challenging the EU, which has been conducting accession negotiations with the countries of the Western Balkans for years.
Based on investments and infrastructure projects in Serbia and Montenegro, the documentary analyzes how China binds these countries to itself. A dependency at a high price - China expects political solidarity in return for its involvement. When it comes to human rights issues at the UN, for example, Serbia is always on China's side.
"Silent Invasion" shows how secret contracts between Chinese state-owned companies and the Western Balkan countries exclude local civil society from participation. But citizens are taking action: when the Chinese Linglong Group builds Europe's largest tire factory, it is journalistic research that uncovers the exploitation of workers. When the Chinese Zijin Group took over the copper mine in Bor, journalists and experts made the resulting air pollution public. Critics of the responsible state authority are then silenced by the government. When Huawei surveillance cameras are installed throughout Belgrade - despite having one of the lowest crime rates in Europe - Belgrade activists draw attention to the silent pact between their government and China.
The documentary examines how ruthlessly implemented large-scale projects are mercilessly destroying the environment and how China's "silent invasion" is consolidating the authoritarian character of the Western Balkan states by deliberately violating the principles of the rule of law.
