They came to build China's EV future. Investigators found 'slavery-like' conditions.

"Dozens of Chinese men were getting off a bus and heading into a pair of squat two-story buildings at the end of the road. Oliveira assumed the outsiders had some type of meeting and would soon be on their way. She'd been inside the structures, painted dark green, and knew they weren't nearly big enough to house them all. But one day turned to the next, and soon Oliveira realized her new neighbors - 56 itinerant Chinese laborers, none of whom spoke any Portuguese - were here to stay."

"Their food was prepared in an improvised kitchen in the garage, amid industrial detritus and vermin, and they never seemed to do anything for fun. All they did was work. 'Seven days a week,' Oliveira, 35, recalled. 'Sunday to Sunday. I never saw any taking a day off.'"

"They departed every morning at dawn and didn't return until dusk. The hours in between were spent helping to build Latin America's largest electric car factory for the world's biggest electric automaker, China's BYD. Constructed on Camaçari's Henry Ford Avenue, on land formerly used by the Ford Motor Company, the plant represented one of China's boldest bets yet in its bid to control the future of automaking."

"China has replaced the United States as the continent's top trading partner, expanding its annual total trade from $8 billion in 2000 to more than $365 billion in 2024, according to the World Trade Organization."

In May 2024, fifty-six Chinese laborers arrived in Camaçari, Brazil to work on construction of BYD's electric car factory, Latin America's largest. The workers, speaking no Portuguese, lived in cramped conditions and worked seven days a week with no days off, departing at dawn and returning at dusk. The factory, built on land formerly used by Ford Motor Company on Henry Ford Avenue, represents a major Chinese investment in automotive manufacturing. This development reflects China's dramatic economic expansion in South America, where it has replaced the United States as the continent's top trading partner, with annual trade growing from $8 billion in 2000 to over $365 billion by 2024.

Read at The Washington Post