TO THIS day the trained eye can still spot the occasional boxy Chinese tractor lumbering around rural Albania, a reminder of the time when this Balkan backwater was China's biggest champion in Europe. In the 1960s Chinese aid and capital propped up Enver Hoxha's dire regime in return for its support at the un, where Taiwan still held the Chinese seat. Now some fear that what comes around goes around. Chinese money is pouring into Europe's heart and its periphery. It sometimes seems to have a political edge. Public investment in the European Union is at its lowest for 20 years. Little wonder some are looking east. The stock of Chinese investment in Europe is low compared with America's or Japan's, but it is shooting up. According to one study, in 2016 its new FDI in the eu was over 77% above that the year before, at €35bn ($41bn). These days China's attention is on the innovation hubs of northern Europe as much as on infrastructure, but crisis-hit southern economies have also lapped up its lucre, especially those that have had to divest state assets under euro-zone bail-outs. Last year Cosco, a Chinese state-owned shipping firm, acquired a controlling stake in the main Greek port of Piraeus, providing Chinese maritime exporters with a European foothold. Portugal is rolling in Chinese loot.
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