ABSTRACT
At the 2017 Davos Economic Forum, Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted the merits of globalization and called for more effective measures and structural reforms to establish equitable governance and build new growth models. The “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) accelerated with the Chinese presidency of the G20 in 2017, advocating for more inclusive regional cooperation and offering ambitious plans to further tighten connections across Eurasian and North African continents. In general, Western and Northern EU states’ engagement with the BRI remains mainly limited to their membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Southern Europe is uniquely situated at the intersection of the Chinese geopolitical, commercial, and investment strategies that are involved in the BRI. China’s interest in Europe has expanded geographically and substantially. While some common patterns exist, new trends in investment and trade relations with China are highly differentiated across Europe and across sectors.
