News emerged earlier this week that the EU is looking to more rigorously screen foreign takeovers of European companies. The move comes amid growing concerns about an influx of Chinese investment into Europe’s manufacturing, energy and infrastructure sectors. Since 2013, Beijing has been throwing all of its weight behind rolling out its ‘New Silk Road’.
The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, as its called nowadays, encompasses over $900 billion in planned investments of infrastructure across Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). However, behind all of that money coming to Europe, there are some major strategic concerns lurking in the shadows writes Sijbren de Jong in his latest column for EUobserver.