China's global expansion drive is clearly visible in Suriname. From deep in the impenetrable Surinamese jungle to the Brownsberg nature reserve, Ruben meets Chinese shopkeepers, Chinese gold seekers and Chinese gold traders everywhere. Ninety percent of all supermarkets in the capital Paramaribo are owned by Chinese and Suriname has a sky-high debt due to Chinese loans and investments. The Chinese are also very active in the exploitation of Suriname's natural resources, such as gold and wood. With fatal consequences for the indigenous population and nature.

In poor Laos, China has moved entire villages to build rails for a flashy speed train to the capital Vientiane. Laos is also building countless dams on the Mekong and its tributaries with Chinese money, with the aim of becoming the 'battery' of Southeast Asia and thus lifting itself out of poverty. Ruben visits a small fishing community that takes action on the banks of the Mekong in Thailand. Their way of life has now become almost impossible. In Laos, Ruben boards the new train. In a village that was moved for the train, there is still one old couple living in their old house.

Australia is one of the few Western countries that exports more to China than it imports. Political ally of the West, but economically linked to China. How free is rich Australia really? Ruben meets veterans and asks them that question. He travels along the west coast, where the lobster industry has been hit hard by the trade restrictions that have been in place since corona. And he speaks to elderly Chinese who reflect on the complicated relationship between the two countries.

Ruben Terlou visits the Solomon Islands, the unknown island state that symbolizes the increasing rivalry between China and the West. China provided a new stadium, many loans and medical aid in exchange for cutting ties with Taiwan. A security treaty allows China to send police officers, resulting in a violent uprising among the local population. Ruben meets tradesmen in Chinatown whose shops were set on fire. And on Malaita, where most of the rioters come from, he meets the man blamed for the riots. Why don't the Solomon Islanders want China?

In Prato the last few decades, the biggest Chinese community of Europe, has taken over the textile industry, which is the pride of Italy. The locals are longing back to the past, but there also those who want to connect the two cultures. In the Tuscan city Prato live and work 50,000 Chinese, the local population doesn't recognise her city anymore. Right wing politicians reproach the Chinese with unfair competition and bad integration, but there's also another sound. Ruben Terlou follows a Chinese woman who campaigns and hopes to become the first politician from Chinese descent in Italy.

On the coast of Cambodia, in only a few years a sleeping backpacker village has been transformed into a gigantic city with casinos, hotels and nightclubs. Sihanoukville is built and populated by Chinese citizens and Chinese investors and fortune seekers flood the city. Cambodians are in the minority, unable to compete and no longer recognize their own city through all the Chinese billboards that are being put up. Ruben Terlou drinks $6,000 cognac with the boss of a nightclub, gets to know a Chinese dancer and meets a Cambodian worker who has lost friends and family after a Chinese construction project had collapsed.

Serbia and China are close friends, partly because of their shared communist past. The Chinese are rolling out railway lines in Serbia and have taken over the ailing heavy industry. But the Serbs pay a hefty price for that support. The steel factory, that once again is fully operational because of the Chinese, leads to terrible pollution and desperate villagers. Down in the gold and copper mines, Ruben Terlou meets a woman who left her family in China for love and he celebrates Chinese New Year with the Chinese miners. Which is not a particular festive evening this time, because the pandemic in Wuhan has just broken out.

In a series of meetings with both Chinese and Mongolians, Ruben paints a worrying picture of a country that is said to be democratic. Unfortunately, China's long arm easily reaches across the border. The enormous Mongolia, which has only 3.5 million inhabitants, is wedged between communist giants Russia and China. Major international musical productions must show the world that they are different: independent and democratic. But in the meantime, under pressure from China, there is no place for anti-Chinese voices and refugees from China, fleeing oppression in neighboring Inner Mongolia, are not safe in Mongolia.