As the analyses on this report present, engagement with China as a rising technological power differs in these 21 EU member states and the United Kingdom, however every of those nations is uncovered by hook or by crook.
For a number of the nations analysed on this report, publicity to Chinese tech is concentrated on client merchandise; for others, it’s an integral a part of industrial worth chains or infrastructure. There are important variations in public debates concerning the dangers related with dealing with China as a technological power – from nearly no discussions to energetic debates in regards to the delicate steadiness between nuanced collaboration and focused de-risking on tech- and innovation.
The diploma of publicity and engagement with China in tech and innovation typically coincides with a nation’s financial publicity to China writ giant. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom will be counted among the many nations which are most affected by China’s rise in tech and innovation sectors.
For France, guaranteeing nationwide and European sovereignty and competitiveness is now structuring relations with China within the technology and innovation area. While China’s capability for technological innovation has develop into simple, the notion of threat in France is more and more palpable. Paris is trying to enhance European competence in fields that contact on sovereignty and safety, such as AI or quantum purposes, digital infrastructure or strategic provide chains. This limits the scope of engagement with China (as nicely as with the United States).
Germany’s financial system is confronted with an existential disaster as a result of rising competitors from China in key industries like automotive, equipment, and pharma. The science neighborhood continues to debate the “risks of not engaging” to the detriment of safety circles, who urge for a extra conservative strategy to forestall undesirable tech switch. The authorities’s efforts to strengthen German competitiveness are solely taking off slowly; efforts for threat mitigation in each enterprise and science are sometimes met with resistance, as a result of the related actors think about not collaborating with China a threat in itself.
In Italy, autonomous driving technology is arguably probably the most consequential file in tech and innovation relations, with Chinese state-owned enterprise SinoChem being a relative majority shareholder at tire producer Pirelli. On the home market, Italian firms within the biopharma sector are dealing with encroachment by surging Chinese rivals. The nation is more and more preoccupied with the query of how continued collaboration with Chinese companions may negatively have an effect on an already declining world share in high-tech manufacturing.
The United Kingdom and China have a long-standing collaborative relationship in science, technology and innovation. However, bilateral analysis and technology ties have develop into more and more securitised over latest years, and the article of home political strain on the UK authorities. As a consequence, future collaboration is prone to be extra constrained than in an earlier part of bilateral relations.
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden can be counted among the many nations with a comparatively excessive diploma of publicity to and engagement with China as a tech power. Their approaches to threat mitigation, nonetheless, differ significantly:
Austria’s science and technology engagement with China is characterised by quiet and regular continuity. Positioning itself as a small impartial actor, Austria has to this point prevented each enthusiastic embrace as nicely as dramatic rupture, searching for steadiness between geopolitical pressures underneath the umbrella of EU-level frameworks. Austria’s industrial coverage roadmap till 2035, with out mentioning China explicitly, locations a robust emphasis on boosting technological sovereignty, financial resilience and the safety of crucial infrastructure.
Belgium’s technology relationship with China is formed by its structural strengths in innovation, institutional and regional fragmentation, and geopolitical dynamics placing its progress mannequin more and more underneath strain. The nation hosts important innovation property, notably in semiconductors, prescribed drugs, and superior manufacturing. Flanders dominates Belgium’s commerce and funding relationship with China however has additionally utilized tighter guardrails on investments and analysis collaboration.
In Denmark, Chinese companies now provide a lot of its electrical bus fleet, Chinese batteries are getting into the power grid, and cooperation is increasing in areas such as inexperienced maritime technology and water administration. Although the China problem has just lately figured much less prominently in public debates, issues about Chinese technology stay deeply institutionalized. Since 2018, Copenhagen has embraced the EU’s de-risking strategy, tightened analysis pointers, and restricted using Chinese-made 5G, drones and surveillance technology.
China’s clout in tech and innovation is seen in an more and more crucial gentle each in enterprise and amongst residents in Finland, additionally as a result of Beijing’s pro-Russian stance within the Ukraine struggle. In coverage and knowledgeable circles, views started turning extra crucial round 2018, just like many different European nations. In the 5G debate, the nation has carried out a U flip: whereas previously, all main Finnish telecom operators had relied on Chinese gear, it was reported in October 2025 that Finland will exclude ‘high-risk vendors’ (e.g., Huawei) from its 5G networks on safety grounds.
Technology additionally performs a essential position in Sino-Dutch relations. The Netherlands has a robust high-tech business that’s entangled with and depending on Chinese gamers, which the battle involving previously Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia confirmed. Simultaneously, China continues to be reliant on crucial technology and experience from Dutch universities and firms like chip machine producer ASML. This offers the Netherlands leverage within the relationship with China – but additionally makes it susceptible to the US-China technological competitors.
When it involves Poland-China cooperation, 4 technology subjects have just lately been mentioned: 5G, lithium-ion batteries, automotive and e-commerce. Rising consciousness of China as a tech power led to the adoption of mitigation measures. Poland is open to Chinese high-tech investments, together with EVs, however solely on the situation of technology switch and based mostly on not merely turning into an meeting web site for Chinese merchandise.
In Sweden, Chinese-owned firms’ R&D investments have elevated by nearly 300 % since 2013. At the identical time, China’s dominance in a number of technology areas has develop into a controversial challenge, not less than for the reason that mid-2010s. Security points have formed coverage changes previously 5 years, for instance in overseas direct funding screening and public procurement laws.
Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain are among the many nations that prioritize cooperation.
In Hungary, China is positioned as each an financial associate and a potential supply of technological integration, whereas threat discourse stays restricted. Key sectors embrace electrical mobility, battery manufacturing, superior ICT, and utilized analysis, although the effectiveness of agreements is constrained by regulatory gaps and Chinese restrictions on technology switch. Changes to that place may lie forward following the change of presidency after the 2026 elections.
Pharmaceuticals, medicine and investments in R&D in China are on the core of Ireland’s engagement with China in science, technology and innovation. Ireland’s coverage in direction of China on this realm constitutes a balancing act: Ireland’s open and FDI-driven financial mannequin, historically robust ties to the US, and authorities methods targeted on safety, competitiveness and a deeper integration throughout the EU single market.
Similarly, Portugal’s engagement with China as a technological and innovation power is grounded in a mixture of collaborative openness, financial pragmatism, and warning amidst intense geopolitical competitors and rivalry. In this context, an incremental progress of Portugal-China collaborative tasks and initiatives in strategically related technological fields is seen in domains like e-batteries, vitality and ICT infrastructure.
Slovakia’s relations with China within the area of technology and innovation have been characterised over the previous 5 years by pendulum-swinging positions pushed by differing political ideologies amongst governing events. Contrary to the earlier authorities, the coalition led by Prime Minister Robert Fico pursues cordial relations with China throughout all domains of interplay. Cooperation on inexperienced applied sciences and renewables is framed as a means in direction of “enhancing energy security,” whereas reliance on Russian fossil fuels and partnership with the US in nuclear vitality persist in parallel.
Spain approaches the problem pragmatically: it nonetheless sees Chinese funding and technological cooperation as instruments for industrial upgrading and the inexperienced transition, even as issues about resilience, safety and asymmetry develop. “Selective engagement” is the order of the day for Spain: limiting threat in delicate areas such as 5G core networks, relying closely on Chinese capabilities in photovoltaics and storage, and making an attempt to embed Chinese funding in EVs and batteries inside broader industrial objectives.
For a number of the nations analysed on this report, engagement with China on tech and innovation shouldn’t be non-existent, however extra restricted. Among them are, for various causes, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia – every of them with their very own approaches to threat mitigation.
In Czechia, Chinese investments within the Czech technology sector stay comparatively small and have been constrained by safety issues and funding screening mechanisms. However, there’s a distinction between discourse and observe, as investments in Chinese 5G and photo voltaic panel applied sciences proceed regardless of warnings from safety companies. The Czech business strongly depends on Chinese imports, whereas Chinese client electronics, surveillance cameras, and chosen industrial applied sciences are broadly used.
Estonia’s engagement with China is greatest characterised by a divergence within the suggestions made by the nationwide safety equipment, and choices made by the enterprise neighborhood. In 2019, Estonia signed the 5G memorandum with the US. China’s help for Russia in its struggle in opposition to Ukraine seemingly prompted the exit of the 16+1 format and BRI. Yet there has not been a full decoupling: Huawei photovoltaic inverters stay embedded in Estonia’s vitality infrastructure, and Estonia’s Bolt has introduced a partnership with China’s Pony.ai in self-driving technology.
China’s funding in Latvia has largely been unsuccessful. Amidst the US-China rivalry and evolving EU coverage on technological safety, Latvia has opted to interact with China through EU frameworks moderately than China led-initiatives.
Lithuania’s place on China as a technological power has shifted from openness, specifically in fintech collaboration, to probably the most alarmist in Europe. Four technology sectors – telecommunications, surveillance tech, photonics, and greentech – have develop into targets of both Lithuanian securitisation or Chinese retaliatory financial coercion.
The technological paths of Romania and China additionally not often intersect. Even although many Memorandas of Understanding have been signed, no actual tech output has resulted from them. Nor is there any debate about potential dangers of China as a tech actor. Chinese surveillance technology – CCTV cameras – had been adopted in Romanian public establishments with none bigger debate.
Slovenia more and more considers China a horny associate in technology, primarily with the objective to create further choices and scale back dependence on a slowing European industrial base. With one among Europe’s highest manufacturing shares of GDP and among the many world high 10 in robotic density, there’s excessive curiosity in participating with China on technological enhancement and market entry. Yet, Slovenia sees itself anchored within the EU, which units clear limits on this engagement.