Chinese Company’s Plan to Build Bottled Water Factory at Russia’s Lake Baikal Falls Through... Russian Authorities Block It

The view of Lake Baikal [Image source= UNESCO homepage/http://whc.unesco.org]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] A Russian court has put the brakes on a Chinese company's plan to build a bottled water factory near Lake Baikal, known as the world's largest freshwater lake. Previously, in March last year, a similar plan by a Chinese company to build a bottled water factory through a local Russian subsidiary was scrapped amid strong opposition from local residents. Recently, concerns about environmental destruction due to the expansion of Chinese capital in Russia have been growing.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS on the 26th, the Kabansky District Court in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia within the Russian Federation, recently ruled that the land ownership of the Chinese company along the shores of Lake Baikal is invalid. As a result, the Chinese company's plan to build a bottled water factory around Lake Baikal is likely to be canceled. The Chinese company had purchased land near Lake Baikal from the Republic of Buryatia in 2006, but the Russian court ruled that the land is exclusively owned by the Russian federal government, not the Republic of Buryatia, and therefore the transaction between the Republic of Buryatia and the Chinese company is invalid.

This is not the first time a Chinese company’s plan to build a bottled water factory at Lake Baikal has been canceled. In March last year, a Chinese company attempted to build a bottled water factory near Lake Baikal through a local Russian subsidiary, but the plan was scrapped after protests erupted not only from local residents but also across Russia. Local residents and Russian environmental activists criticize that the entry of Chinese capital into Russia has led to increased logging activities in Siberia, causing environmental destruction.

Lake Baikal, with an area of 31,722 km² and a circumference of 2,100 km, is known as the largest freshwater lake in the world and was designated a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 1996.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.