Conclusion

Abstract

The concluding chapter distils key highlights from the case studies. China’s enhanced footprint in Europe is of a piece with its growing investments in transnational infrastructures that shape the contemporary global political economy. The conclusion responds to anxieties that such investments threaten to revise, challenge, and overthrow the Liberal International Order. It draws on a selection of the case studies to highlight the role of European agency rather than Chinese investments in straining the liberal order. Chinese power is entwined with the agency of states and societies in Europe: it is effective to the extent that China can harness European agency in favour of its own preferences. But these preferences, as another selection of the chapters shows, are fragmented and messy and do not singularly focus on dismantling the liberal world order. Indeed, as a third selection of chapters illustrates, Chinese investments in Europe may even result in the unintended outcome of strengthening the Liberal International Order.