Chinese FDI in Europe has grown considerably since 2009 when Chinese investors embarked on a shopping spree in Europe in light of the global financial crisis.
This has understandably led to questioning the extent and kind of Chinese influence in the EU. However, most analyses of the EU’s economic dependency on China have focused on the absolute values of Chinese FDI in member states.
Another way how to look at the Chinese investment in the EU is through relative values. As this map shows, comparing the stock of Chinese FDI with the overall FDI stock in individual member states reveals new findings about the extent of economic dependency on China across the EU.
Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that the presence of Chinese FDI is not the only all-explaining metric when it comes to Chinese influence.
