China, which runs Greece’s biggest container terminal, is fretting about its involvement in a country hailed only last year by Premier Li Keqiang as its “gateway to Europe”.
Beijing’s nervousness stems from the rise of a leftist Greek political party that has demonstrated just how quickly its foreign investment strategies can be upended by electoral politics overseas.
“Greece is like a beggar with a golden bowl,” says Yan Jiehe, a Chinese construction tycoon who recently toured Greece looking for road contracts. As long as Athens refused to share its golden bowl by offering foreign investors attractive terms, he said, it would fail to attract capital from companies such as his own privately held China Pacific Construction Group.