Philippe Le Corre wrote that China has had a long-term game on the Greek issue. Despite the recent turnaround, Beijing still regards it as an important hub for Europe.
Philippe Le Corre is a non-resident senior researcher for the European and Asian projects of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace.
In the mid-summer of 2021, after months of uncertainty, the Greek privatization agency finally approved the sale of an additional 16% of the shares of the Piraeus Port Authority to China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), granting a 67% majority of Chinese state-owned enterprises Control. Percentage of Athens port.
COSCO Group has held a majority stake in Greece’s largest port since 2016, making Piraeus one of China’s most successful investment projects in the EU.
Between 2009 and 2018, the container volume of Piraeus increased from 0.8 containers to 4.9 million, an increase of 190% over 2017.
According to experts interviewed, the newly released Carnegie Foundation Report, The main reason for the increase in traffic volume is China’s strategic decision to transfer transshipment to Piraeus.
Under the banner of “Maritime Silk Road”, China has openly turned Athens into a hub for expansion in the Mediterranean region.
Nevertheless, recent developments are not without obstacles, as Greek stakeholders have become increasingly conflicted about the presence of COSCO and China in the country in the past two years.
Ship repair companies, ship owners, local politicians, labor unions and environmental protection associations all expressed opposition to COSCO’s plans in the region.
This led to a cautious response from the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who came to power in 2019.
Although he said he hoped “A new era of Greece-China relations” During President Xi Jinping’s state visit in 2019, Mizotakis also publicly announced that “Greece is not particularly dependent on Chinese investment.”
The characteristic of China-Greece relations is that Greek public opinion is in sharp contrast to the increasingly negative perception of Beijing’s presence in this Southeast European country and the Chinese media’s constant praise of “China-Greece engagement rather than China’s long-term investment”. “.
Since the 2004 Athens Olympics, Beijing has been wooing the Greek public. In 2017, China helped organize the Forum of Ancient Civilizations in Athens.
The following year, the European Confucius Institute Annual Conference was held in Greece. In recent years, the two governments have signed a number of scientific and technological cooperation agreements.
At the same time, the Chinese narrative describes China as a “benign superpower, which is promoting a new set of harmonious international relations.”
According to a recent report by the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER) in Athens, “China wants to be seen as a true friend of generous assistance to Greece.”
Initially, this soft power strategy for Greece was very successful between 2008 and 2018: In December 2016, the vast majority of respondents (82%) rated China-Greece relations as “friendly” or “relatively friendly” “.
After Covid-19, this statement no longer holds. First, the Greek public-including those working in the shipping industry-are more interested in practical actions and work.
Second, China’s attempts to present itself as a benefactor in the early stages of the pandemic had a negative impact.
In April 2019, Greek media reports monitored by Kapa Research, a local polling agency, found that 44% of Greek respondents attributed the Covid-19 pandemic to China.
Since the original Piraeus deal in 2016, public ecstasy, if not outright opposition, has been replaced by suspicion.
Many Sino-Greek commercial transactions have been interrupted or cancelled, including the joint development around Hellenikon Airport, the sale of Ethniki Asfalistiki, Greece’s largest insurance company, or the privatization of the Greek railway operator TrainOSE.
In all these cases, Chinese companies were excluded. Worried about regional security issues with Turkey, Mizotakis himself has realized how much Greece needs the United States and the European Union, while China has little to offer in terms of security.
As for Piraeus, it is often described as The “leading” of Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping himself.
But the painful conclusion of a long-awaited deal shows how complicated China’s infrastructure investment is in the current post-pandemic geopolitical context.
China’s ambitions in the Mediterranean may be real, but Greece’s views have become contradictory.
“Piraeus cannot benefit from COSCO Group,” the owner Vangelis Marinakis said in 2020.
However, it is obvious that China has engaged in a long-term game on the Greek issue. Despite the recent turnaround, Beijing still regards it as an important hub and partner for Europe.
