My tracking of Chinese investments in Europe started almost by accident. Last year I noted how many European countries reported that China's telecommunication giant
Huawei - one of the country's largest private companies - promised many European capitals investments and jobs.
Partly it seems a successful Chinese negotiation trick in crisis-stricken Europe, and partly real investments from Huawei. Then I noted how
cheerful Danish diplomats announced that an alliance of electronics producers
Aigo - combining the interests of about a hundred of private Chinese companies - had decided to use Denmark as its stepping stone into Europe. Representatives of the Aigo alliance had visited Denmark, Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands at the end of 2011 to decide where to invest.
The Danish proved at least not 100 percent right, as the Aigo alliance decided in February to use Belgium as its stepping stone into Europe; the Danish had been too eager and too early. Although, from the r
eports in the China Daily I learned the Danish had not given up all ambitions.
Belgium had made an offer the Chinese private companies (50 according to Aigo, over a hundreds according to Belgium) that was very hard to refuse.
The China Daily:
Note that the Chinese guests are only passing by in Belgium at the end of March and have not yet committed themselves to anything.
Up to then, I collected the news more as a by-catch of the China news I was scanning for my
China Speakers Bureau, but started an eye on that investment news proved to be pretty interesting. Most of the European governments, and the 'independent' media in those countries, reported enthusiastically about the Chinese willingness to save the economy of their country. They mostly did not check what happened in other European countries, where conflicting information made headlines.
A clear plan is not yet there, although I have started to work on setting up a more comprehensive website in my spare time and are looking for ways to get this kind of intelligence operation funded. For the time being, it is interesting how Chinese companies (especially the private ones, I'm missing the much larger state-owned entities. Actually,
Hamburg in Germany is doing a better job there, with Baosteel and Cosco as major investors) are having a heyday, where different governments are eager to present good news to their constituencies, while ignoring they are messing up their negotiation position with the Chinese partners.
Of course, Europe is large enough to have China business stepping stones in almost every country. Now, I have seen them i
n Belgium (Antwerp),
the Netherlands (Rotterdam),
Denmark,
Ireland (Athlone) and
France (
Illange). In most countries the hosts are already investing many millions. (Do you know more? Let me know!). But it looks like Chinese investors are the main winners in the short term.
Most individual countries have no political interest in sharing information with their competing neighbors, so an independent intelligence center might be a good idea.
