The China Road and Bridge Corporation, a state-owned Chinese company has begun construction on a bridge largely funded by the European Union that will end decades of separation between Croatia’s southern coast to the rest of the country by an interruption of Bosnian land. Above, the Peljesac Peninsula channel.
The E.U. has been cautious in allowing state-owned Chinese firms to compete for big infrastructure projects, fearing that they will undermine competition, trample the bloc’s labor laws and depress wages. The construction of the bridge will test the validity of these fears.
More widely, some in the E.U. are concerned over Beijing’s befriending of Balkan and Eastern European leaders, which has been seen as an attempt to undermine the bloc.
