These days, €6bn does not buy much in the global financial markets. It is just 5.4 per cent of the size of the 2010 Greek rescue package, a mere 1.1 per cent of the outstanding debt of the Spanish government and a minuscule 0.3 per cent of China’s foreign currency reserves. The comparisons are relevant, as €6bn is the amount the Chinese government was reported last week to have pledged to spend on Spanish bonds.
The relatively small (and unconfirmed) number follows some vague promises from Beijing to other troubled eurozone countries. The Greeks have already received a big investment in the Piraeus port in Athens. The Portuguese authorities as yet have only friendly words and the Irish just rumours that the Chinese government could be buying some of its debt.
It may sound like Beijing is trying to get something it values – goodwill from European authorities – for almost nothing. That could yet prove true, if the crisis deepens and nothing much actually transpires from Beijing. More likely, though, the Chinese are feeling their way towards a European political-economic strategy.