Chinese Investors Highly Attracted To Europe

The world's most populous country, China, has its local investors vying for a slice of Europe's economic market. As a a Bloomberg contribution on the Chicago Tribune puts it, Chinese investors "have a powerful attraction to companies in the European Union, and their targets are increasingly high-profile." The latest in the series of China-Europe deals is potentially between bidder ChemChina's subsidiary China National Tire & Rubber Company and the world's fifth-largest tire maker, Pirelli. If successful, the "7.1 billion-euro ($7.7 billion) deal will put the 143-year-old Italian company in Chinese hands," Reuters reported. "Europe is relatively cheap, it's open, and it's got things that Chinese companies are after: technology and household names," states the Bloomberg writer. Around one percent of the European foreign direct investment stock is held onto by China, which apparently is "not enough to worry about." However, Bloomberg adds that "this doesn't include local booms in private Chinese investment, like those in Portuguese or Latvian real estate under those countries 'golden visa' programs." Which means there is a tentative problem at hand. According to Bloomberg's article, Princeton University's Sophie Meunier explained in a 2014 paper, "For the moment, Chinese investment seems like money falling from the sky, but it could turn ... into a Trojan horse introducing Chinese politics and values into the heart of Europe." Meanwhile in China, it is required for European investors to create joint ventures with local Chinese partners. Essentially, Bloomberg believes that "Europe needs a coherent policy for dealing with foreign direct investment, setting out clear guidelines for what's permissible, which investors are welcome and which are not."