Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

If no help could be expected from Washington, what about China, the new power in the global economy? Beijing saw the Eastern Mediterranean as a natural extension of its Eurasian One Belt, One Road logistical network. China had already taken a high-profile and controversial stake in Piraeus port.43 Varoufakis eagerly explored the possibility of attracting additional Chinese capital and even Chinese intervention in the market for Greek Treasury debt. Beijing seemed interested. But the bond buying Beijing promised never materialized. When Varoufakis inquired why, the answer he received from Beijing was stark. Beijing had pulled back because Berlin had let the Chinese know that it did not welcome their intervention in the Greek crisis.