"The European Union’s response to the human rights crisis in Hong Kong has been muted at best." HKW Senior Policy Adviser @SamGoodman22 latest on whether the EU has been compromised by strategic dependency on China. https://www.hongkongwatch.org/all-posts/2021/1/5/the-eu-has-been-compromised-by-strategic-dependency-on-china

"Some speculate that the EU’s lacklustre response to the crisis in Hong Kong may simply be down to the fact that Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has not captured the imagination of Europeans in the same way it has the English-speaking world."

"But a more compelling explanation points to something far more endemic: namely that when it comes to dealing with China, the political and economic union is heavily compromised."

"In 2010s, as the Troika forced countries into a fire-sale of state assets, Chinese state-owned enterprises pounced on the opportunity to buy substantial stakes in key European infrastructure."

"In Portugal, they purchased the country’s largest insurance company, nearly a third of its formerly run state energy grid company, 27 percent of the country’s largest bank, and 30 percent of the country’s largest media conglomerate."

"The Greek Government under pressure from the Troika to restructure its debt, found Chinese State-owned enterprises eager investors buying a minority stake in the country’s power grid operator ADMIE and buying a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority."

"In Italy, Chinese companies have quietly amassed a substantial portfolio buying the Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli, 35 percent of CDP Reti, and a subsidiary of Italy’s state financing agency that controls the country’s electricity grid operator & gas distribution."

Across Europe, the EU Commission has recorded a growing number of EU companies being bought out & taken over by Chinese companies, increasing from just 5,000 in 2007 to 28,000 in 2017. It also found a rising percentage of European assets under Chinese management."

"What does this surge in investment in vital infrastructure mean for the bloc’s policy towards the CCP? Pre-pandemic it meant preferential access with both Portugal and Greece introducing golden visa schemes & becoming signatories and enthusiastic supporters of China's BRI."

"In the last year the Chinese Government has effectively leveraged this investment to muffle European criticism of its handling of COVID, its treatment of the Uyghurs, and its dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy."

"The signing of the EU-China Investment Treaty as Europe struggles to deal with the economic fallout of COVID-19, risks even more strategic industries and infrastructure falling into the hands of Chinese state-owned enterprises."

"It’s clear by the speed, pressure, and ferocity at which the Commission and certain EU Member States pushed for the investment talks conclusion over concerns of European and member state parliamentarians, that when it comes to China, the EU is already heavily compromised."