European economies at risk of coercion from China 

Financial Times Europe 25 Sep 2026 PETER FOSTER — LONDON

 Europe’s three largest eco nom ies — France, Ger many and the UK — were ranked among the seven coun tries glob ally that were most exposed to Chinese power, accord ing to an index cre ated by National Taiwan Uni versity. Research ers gen er ally found that demo cra cies were more vul ner able to Chinese influ ence than auto cra cies. The index used com puter sim u la tions to weigh indic at ors of influ ence, includ ing trade, invest ment, mil it ary and dip lo matic ties, in order to build a rank ing of coun tries’ expos ure to China. The rank ing dis proved com monly held the or ies that Beijing’s deep est con trol was over poorer coun tries in Asia, Africa and South Amer ica, where Chinese com pan ies have inves ted heav ily in extract ive indus tries and man u fac tur ing, said George Yin, senior research fel low at NTU’s Cen ter for China Stud ies. “These find ings con tra dict the expect a tion that expos ure to Chinese power would be sig ni fic antly less in Europe than in the Indo-Pacific, given Europe’s geo graph ical insu la tion from Chinese mil it ary reach,” he said. Ana lysts said the index, which is being pub lished jointly by the Ber lin based thinktanks Global Pub lic Policy Insti tute (GPPi) and Mer cator Insti tute for China Stud ies (Mer ics), also high lighted the degree to which Beijing had acquired poten tial lever age over west ern demo cra cies over the past dec ade. Thor sten Ben ner, GPPi dir ector, said it con veyed a clear mes sage to west ern gov ern ments as they looked to build greater eco nomic resi li ence. “Learn to use your own lever age vis-àvis Beijing and be will ing to pay a price for this as you defend your interests — oth er wise the out come will be sub mis sion to a Sino-cent ric eco nomic order.” South Korea topped the global rank ing, with Rus sia the most exposed in Europe, mainly as a res ult of a big increase in exports to China, which rose from 1.6 per cent of Rus sia’s GDP in 2013 to a peak of 5.4 per cent in 2023. Beijing sees its role in global sup ply chains as import ant inter na tional lever age that can help it defend itself against eco nomic coer cion from the US and other advance

eco nom ies that have intro duced a grow ing num ber of export con trols in recent years. China has shown its own will ing ness to use coer cive power, bring ing sev eral US and EU car plants close to a stand still last year by restrict ing exports of com pon ents such as mag nets. The move came in response to the US rais ing tar iffs on Chinese exports to 145 per cent. The EU is also con front ing Beijing over its €1bn-a-day trade defi cit with China, which Ursula von der Leyen, European Com mis sion pres id ent, last week called “unsus tain able”. The index found that the UK, Nor way, Switzer land and Sweden had reduced rel at ive expos ure to China in recent years. But other European coun tries, includ ing Ire land and Spain, have increased their reli ance as a res ult of large increases in Chinese invest ment.