ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 opens the book’s “China’s worldwide transfer networks” section by surveying Europe. The CPC’s system of extracting research, talent, and innovation can be deployed anywhere it spots technology it wants for state-building and economic development. As a highly innovative part of the world with open political systems and generous research structures, Europe is a focus of interest, increasingly so as these activities become more difficult in the US due to increased scrutiny and law enforcement. This chapter uses mostly primary sources and original research to lay bare the structures and human activity behind technology transfer across Europe from Ireland to Finland, from Portugal to Greece. It looks at growing activity by the Zhigong Party, part of the CPC’s United Front. The continent’s complex political, legal and institutional landscape, with dozens of countries, national systems and languages, and an idealistic, bureaucratic European Union atop some but not all of it, create a complex and challenging picture.
