Industrial relations in Chinese multinational corporations in Europe: A regional lens

As an introduction to the special issue titled ‘China’s Influence on Industrial Relations in Europe and Beyond’, this article sets the scene by providing an overview of the emerging influence of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe. With a critique of the institutional approach, an approach which has dominated debates about FDI behaviour, and its implications for industrial relations in host countries, we employ a regional lens to examine Europe, focussing on the region’s shared characteristics and national specificities, and we explicate how Europe’s institutions and actors have interacted with or been shaped by Chinese FDI in the context of geopolitical developments between China and Europe.