- Laszlo Papp [the mayor if the Hungarian cirty if Debrecen] has publicly called for Chinese battery-parts manufacturer Semcorp to exit after pollution incident after tests revealed contamination 13,000 times above limit
- The $210 million plant was closed last month because of elevated metal levels detected in local water sources.
- The government led by recently appointed Prime Minister Peter Magyar has promised to shift away from reliance on foreign assembly operations and has accused the previous administration of ignoring environmental infractions at foreign investments.
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Papp wrote on social media: “The local authority and all its subsidiaries will refuse any cooperation with Semcorp in the future,” calling the company “irresponsible.”
Semcorp did not respond when contacted via email for comment. The administration of recently elected Prime Minister Peter Magyar has promised to shift Hungary’s economic strategy away from relying on foreign assembly operations, and accused Orban’s former officials of ignoring environmental breaches while assisting projects with preferential treatment and state funds.
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The Fidesz party of Orban, which includes Mayor Papp among its members, has rejected these claims. Accusations of environmental misconduct at multiple major foreign projects played a key role in Magyar’s electoral win. All the factories involved have maintained that they comply with environmental regulations.
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To provide additional context, Debrecen has long been a focal point of Hungary’s battery industry ambitions. The Semcorp facility, built to manufacture battery components, represented one of the largest single foreign investments in the region. Its sudden closure not only idles hundreds of local workers but also raises doubts about the viability of future projects that were planned under the previous administration’s aggressive recruitment of Asian manufacturers.
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Isnt this why corporations moved manufacturing to China? Because local regulations were strict and therefore expensive to meet. Corporations were fine with China polluting their own backyard and having unethical labor practices that could be easily hidden.
What an absurdly weird framing. There’s what a lot wrong with ‘globalization’ that goes far beyond this issue here (in the West as well as in China), but this “the West bad, China bad okay” framing doesn’t make sense.
I mean this article is about exactly that. China set up a factory in the EU and was caught polluting above local regulations.
is that a fucking AI generated image?
also, the mayor was very reluctant to do anything about this shitshow. for a long time all he could do was downplay the issues. after fidesz lost the election, he started defending himself that the operation of this company is not his responsibility, because governmental bodies have given it the permit.
These fucking titles piss me off
chinese firm
Ah yes, exactlty what I wanted to know, that they’re chinese, as if that fucking matters, you xenophobes.
That’s perfectly alright to mention that in the title as someone already explained.
The point is that a certain group of people get mad here when you criticize China, but the same people don’t have a problem if you say “US bastards” and things like that. Offending all US people because the Florida man wrote something is apparently ‘fine’ xenophobia, but when you mention China - which is absolutely justified here - then you freaking out.
Reminds me of “it’s only Imperialism if the West does it”.
It is a Chinese firm. Why would one not include this in the title? Chinese investments in Europe are a contentious topic, not in small part because the country is notorious for exactly the kind of crimes against the environment as described in the article, as well as poor labor practices (including slavery), corruption (obviously a hot topic in Hungary right now), human rights abuses, IP theft, espionage, intimidation, etc.
It is not xenophobic (or “sinophobic”) to report these things. Why are you carrying water for this awful regime?