The largest European business lobby in China warned on Thursday that the country’s market access barriers are “politically unsustainable” as Chinese investment continues to flood into the EU.

“There is a small, rocky pathway to China [for foreign investors] and an autobahn from China to Europe,” said J?rg Wuttke, head of the European Chamber of Commerce in China. “The increasing wave of Chinese investment into Europe, while European investment in China drops, highlights the lack of reciprocal market access.”

In an annual position paper on Chinese operating conditions for its member companies, the chamber noted that Chinese investment into Europe surged 44 per cent in 2015 to €20bn. That total has already been exceeded this year with 119 completed or pending Chinese investments, including ChemChina’s $44bn offer for Syngenta of Switzerland.