The way of the dragon

When I started to work here six years ago there was one delegation from China a month - now there are two or three every week," says Bartosz Komasa, the head of the China desk at the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ). The delegates he is meeting - usually representatives of Chinese central and local government and local companies - have revealed to him that there is a Chinese national strategy to focus investment on Poland and Greece. The latter, because at the moment it is cheap to buy there, and Poland for its strategic location in the EU. "The Covec affair has complicated this process somewhat," he admits, "but this doesn't seem to have put off other potential companies and we don't see any problems with future investment." Some in the Polish media, however, are less sanguine about the prospect of more Chinese constructors coming our way. On June 15th the country's General Directorate for National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA) tore up its contract with the Chi