Hawkish observers argue that China's foreign investments are — by definition — corrupting, with a corrosive influence on smaller, often only nominally democratic and market-based nations, including those on the eastern periphery of the European Union (EU). Others are less convinced that Chinese investment represents a genuine threat. The EU members in eastern Europe stand at a crossroads in their relations with Beijing and Brussels. "These investments will have repercussions across the EU," as Eric Hontz, who leads the Washington-based Center for International Private Enterprise's (CIPE's) work on corrosive capital, ... (full story)