China’s Geoeconomic Strategy: The Case of State Grid’s European Investments

Abstract

This paper studies the case of the Chinese company State Grid (SG) and its internationalisation roadmap into Europe. The aim is to comprehend how a transnational State-owned enterprise can be an instrument of the Chinese geoeconomic strategy. Despite its economic and strategic importance, there is still a research gap about SG and its role in China’s geoeconomic strategy. By examining the SG internationalisation path into Europe, between 2012 and 2019, we identify the geopolitical impacts of the Chinese strategy. Although SG’s investments can be capitalised on important economic gains, they entail geopolitical effects that might collide with host countries’ economic security.

Keywords

• state grid
• china
• geoeconomics
• internationalisation
• fdi