BREST, Belarus — There are no banners, no slogans or even raised voices, never mind fists.But, for more than a year now, hundreds of protesters have gathered each Sunday to feed pigeons in Lenin Square and, in a heavily camouflaged show of dissent, to display their hostility to a Chinese-funded lead-acid battery factory that they say will spew deadly toxins into the air and groundwater.The factory, already built on the outskirts of the western city of Brest but waiting permission to start production, has become a symbol of what its opponents see as an unhealthily close relationship between Beijing and the government of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus since 1994.Like President Vladimir V. Putin of neighboring Russia, Mr. Lukashenko brooks little dissent. He has also, like the Russian leader, looked increasingly to China for money and inspiration: Europe has lost of much of its sheen as an economic model, but China offers an example of how authoritarian politics can mix with robust economic growth.“They have made a huge leap forward. This is an example for us,” said Aliaksandr Yarashenka, the head of administration at a Chinese-funded industrial park now rising from what used to be a wasteland of pine trees and swamp near the capital city, Minsk.The industrial park is the biggest such overseas venture financed by China, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily, which hailed Belarus as the “gateway to Europe,” although the country is not part of the European Union and any goods it produces are subject to steep tariffs if they enter Europe.Mr. Yarashenka said the low cost of labor in Belarus, where average salaries are around $500 a month compared with $2,000 or more in the European Union, easily made up for the burden of tariffs and offered foreign companies a big incentive to set up export-oriented factories in his country.Mostly shunned by European investors and wary of becoming too dependent on Russia, which has a record of trying to grab its prize assets, Belarus has eagerly turned to China. Beijing makes no demands on Mr. Lukashenko to ease repression or surrender companies like Belaruskali, a leading potash manufacturer over which Moscow has sought to gain control.Belarus’s official news agency, BelTA, reported recently that the country was close to securing a loan of more than $500 million from China. It quoted the deputy finance minister, Andrei Belkovets, as saying that “we initially counted on a loan from the Russian Federation” but that Russia had stalled on providing funds, so “as an alternative we’ve come to terms with Chinese creditors.”In recent years, Chinese money has financed new roads, power plants, a luxury hotel in Minsk and, to the fury of the protesters in Brest, the lead-acid battery factory. Such batteries, widely used in cars, contain sulfuric acid and lead, both of which are highly toxic.“For the Chinese, we are like Africa — poor and needy,” said Vladislav Abramovich, a former doctor who lives in a forest settlement near the battery factory and worries about being poisoned. “America and Europe won’t give money for dirty factories like this, but China doesn’t care and wants business for Chinese companies.”The pigeon-feeding protesters, a mix of people who live near the battery plant and environmental activists, have carefully avoided criticizing President Lukashenko, instead focusing their complaints on what they say are the grave health hazards posed by the plant and what they believe, without any clear evidence, is substandard Chinese equipment.Those identified by security forces as protest leaders have been repeatedly detained and fined. At one recent pigeon-feeding session, burly men in uniforms grabbed a prominent opponent of the plant, Sergei Paterukhin, a former actor, while he was live-blogging the event, and bundled him into an unmarked car. It was the 10th time he had been arrested.The Belarusian company behind the factory, 1AK-Group, denies any environmental risks, insisting that toxic lead waste will total just 6.6 pounds a year. Opponents of the plant dismiss this figure as impossibly low, but Richard Fuller, an environmental scientist and president of Pure Earth, a nonprofit organization based in New York, said that many lead-acid battery factories operated safely in Europe and the United States.Mr. Fuller said he had not visited the Brest plant but added that, unlike low-cost artisanal operations, it seemed to have modern technology and
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BREST, Belarus — There are no banners, no slogans or even raised voices, never mind fists.But, for more than a year now, hundreds of protesters have gathered each Sunday to feed pigeons in Lenin Square and, in a heavily camouflaged show of dissent, to display their hostility to a Chinese-funded lead-acid battery factory that they say will spew deadly toxins into the air and groundwater.The factory, already built on the outskirts of the western city of Brest but waiting permission to start production, has become a symbol of what its opponents see as an unhealthily close relationship between Beijing and the government of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus since 1994.Like President Vladimir V. Putin of neighboring Russia, Mr. Lukashenko brooks little dissent. He has also, like the Russian leader, looked increasingly to China for money and inspiration: Europe has lost of much of its sheen as an economic model, but China offers an example of how authoritarian politics can mix with robust economic growth.“They have made a huge leap forward. This is an example for us,” said Aliaksandr Yarashenka, the head of administration at a Chinese-funded industrial park now rising from what used to be a wasteland of pine trees and swamp near the capital city, Minsk.The industrial park is the biggest such overseas venture financed by China, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily, which hailed Belarus as the “gateway to Europe,” although the country is not part of the European Union and any goods it produces are subject to steep tariffs if they enter Europe.Mr. Yarashenka said the low cost of labor in Belarus, where average salaries are around $500 a month compared with $2,000 or more in the European Union, easily made up for the burden of tariffs and offered foreign companies a big incentive to set up export-oriented factories in his country.Mostly shunned by European investors and wary of becoming too dependent on Russia, which has a record of trying to grab its prize assets, Belarus has eagerly turned to China. Beijing makes no demands on Mr. Lukashenko to ease repression or surrender companies like Belaruskali, a leading potash manufacturer over which Moscow has sought to gain control.Belarus’s official news agency, BelTA, reported recently that the country was close to securing a loan of more than $500 million from China. It quoted the deputy finance minister, Andrei Belkovets, as saying that “we initially counted on a loan from the Russian Federation” but that Russia had stalled on providing funds, so “as an alternative we’ve come to terms with Chinese creditors.”In recent years, Chinese money has financed new roads, power plants, a luxury hotel in Minsk and, to the fury of the protesters in Brest, the lead-acid battery factory. Such batteries, widely used in cars, contain sulfuric acid and lead, both of which are highly toxic.“For the Chinese, we are like Africa — poor and needy,” said Vladislav Abramovich, a former doctor who lives in a forest settlement near the battery factory and worries about being poisoned. “America and Europe won’t give money for dirty factories like this, but China doesn’t care and wants business for Chinese companies.”The pigeon-feeding protesters, a mix of people who live near the battery plant and environmental activists, have carefully avoided criticizing President Lukashenko, instead focusing their complaints on what they say are the grave health hazards posed by the plant and what they believe, without any clear evidence, is substandard Chinese equipment.Those identified by security forces as protest leaders have been repeatedly detained and fined. At one recent pigeon-feeding session, burly men in uniforms grabbed a prominent opponent of the plant, Sergei Paterukhin, a former actor, while he was live-blogging the event, and bundled him into an unmarked car. It was the 10th time he had been arrested.The Belarusian company behind the factory, 1AK-Group, denies any environmental risks, insisting that toxic lead waste will total just 6.6 pounds a year. Opponents of the plant dismiss this figure as impossibly low, but Richard Fuller, an environmental scientist and president of Pure Earth, a nonprofit organization based in New York, said that many lead-acid battery factories operated safely in Europe and the United States.Mr. Fuller said he had not visited the Brest plant but added that, unlike low-cost artisanal operations, it seemed to have modern technology and
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