Dusan Stojanovic

In this photo taken Thursday workers rest near billboard showing Chinese President Xi Jinping, reading: “Welcome President”, right, and billboard reading: “Nobody was hurt in my shift today” in front of the Zelezara Smederevo steel mill, in the city of Smederevo, 45 kilometers east of Belgrade, Serbia. When U.S. Steel sold its loss-making smelter in Serbia to the government for $1 in 2012, few thought the communist-era factory would ever be revived. Then came along a state-owned Chinese company. Hebei Iron & Steel’s 46 million-euro ($52 million) purchase of the steelworks last year is part of China’s broader effort to project influence and gain access to the European market as other traditional powers, particularly the U.S. under President Donald Trump, retreat from the world stage. - Darko Vojinovic — The Associated Press

China’s ambition, US retreat on show in Serbian factory town

August 23, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.

SMEDEREVO, Serbia >> A giant Chinese red flag flutters on a pole where an American flag used to fly at a steel mill in this dusty industrial Serbian town. The...

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