Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the European Union (EU) has increased over 17 times from 2010 to 2016. This was followed by a drop in investments due to controls introduced on capital outflow by the Chinese government in the last two years.
Still, 2018 FDI numbers showed that Chinese investments were 12 times higher than in 2010. Moreover, the investments targeted specific sectors like energy and technology, which is why several EU member states have come to suspect an underlying political motive.
This is more so within the EU’s four largest economies – the United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany, and Italy – cumulatively, they received 70 percent of all Chinese FDI to the EU since 2000. All of them have tightened their investment screening processes, except for Italy, whose current government reversed previous policies that were skeptical of China.
