INSIDE TRADE WARS  BookClub Book of the Week:

'China's Offensive in Europe' by Philippe Le Corre & Sepulchre, Brookings Institution Press (2016)

'L'Offensive Chinoise en Europe' par Philippe Le Corre et Alain Sepulchre, Fayard (2015)

Click on the book covers for more details.

There are not many books out there that surveys and explores China’s penetration into the European region, and this is just the right book for the task. What’s crucial to note from the authors’ findings is that while traditionally, Europe had been viewed as a heavily regulated, difficult to penetrate market for China, following the Global Financial Crisis, China has taken on a stride to acquire European companies or invest heavily in Europe. Such moves have been further accelerated by the Belt and Road Initiative from 2013, which were widely welcomed by European economies.

But in the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, European states are giving it a second thought on inward FDI from China. In April of 2020, the EU Commission’s Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age) argued that the EU should block China from takeovers while the EU economy is on a downward spiral due to COVID-19 and its impact.

The book appears to have been written in light of the rapid expansion of Chinese presence in Europe, and four years past its publication, the history of Chinese engagement in European industries and finance deserves a good read – in order for us to gauge where Europe is headed next, and how the UK will engage with China in the future after having announced its ban and phase-out of Huawei equipment by 2027.