The three major European economies are among the countries with the highest risk of economic coercion from China

First submission 09-25 23:19

Update time 09-26 07:08

Europe's three largest economies are among the countries most at risk of economic coercion from Beijing. (Reuters)

[Compiled by Wei Guojin/Taipei Report] Although Europe has worked hard to reduce its dependence on China for many years, a cross-border index shows that Europe's three largest economies: France, Germany and the United Kingdom are among the countries at the highest risk of suffering economic coercion from Beijing. At the same time, South Korea and Russia rank among the top two in the index.

The Financial Times reported that National Taiwan University and two German think tanks, the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) ​​and the Mercator Center for China Studies (MERICS), jointly published the "China Exposure Index", which uses computer simulations to weigh key indicators, including foreign direct investment, trade, military power, foreign relations, and soft power tools such as Confucius Institutes and Pandas, to rank 184 countries around the world in terms of exposure to China's influence.

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The findings upend the common belief that China has the greatest influence on poor countries in Asia, Africa and South America, where it invests heavily in mining and manufacturing.

George Yin, a senior researcher at National Taiwan University's Mainland Studies Center, pointed out that due to Europe's geographical location and isolation from China's military power, it is generally expected that Europe's exposure to China's influence will be significantly lower than that of the Indo-Pacific region. However, the research results are quite different from expectations.

The study shows that although France, Germany and the United Kingdom have tried in recent years to reduce their reliance on Chinese investment, trade, and other links, Europe's largest economies are still disproportionately exposed to possible economic coercion from Beijing. The study also found that democracies are more susceptible to Chinese power than authoritarian states.

Earlier this year, EY-Parthenon estimated that by 2050, the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom would need to jointly invest US$23.6 trillion in order to wean themselves off dependence on China in key industries such as manufacturing and technology.

According to the study, the top 10 countries with the highest exposure to China in the world are South Korea, Russia, Germany, the United States, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

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