As Chinese companies seek new markets due to narrowing domestic profits, they are facing increased scrutiny and probes from the European Union. This series examines the challenges Chinese firms encounter as they expand globally.

With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. Not long ago, plans were in motion to build an enormous battery factory in the Belgian countryside. If completed, it would have created an estimated 2,000 jobs.....