While the EU’s step is a preliminary one, it has powers to issue fines, order the suspension of tenders, or even block state takeovers of firms if it eventually unearths evidence of unfair subsidies given by the Chinese state.

“China is for us simultaneously a partner, an economic competitor, and a systemic rival,” according to Ms Vestager. 

“And the last two dimensions are increasingly converging,” she said. 

The EU’s latest examination into Chinese investments follows announcement of a full-blown probe into bids by Chinese firms for a Romanian solar park, and a Chinese company recently abandoned a a €610m Bulgarian railway tender after an EU investigation got under way.

The latest move drew strong criticism from the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU. 

“This action sends a detrimental signal to the world, suggesting discrimination against Chinese enterprises and endorsing protectionism,” the group said. 

In its green push, the EU wants to cut dependence on imports of clean technologies and boost resilience. 

The EU, which already lost out to China in solar panels manufacturing, has pledged to bolster its wind energy industry and monitor possible unfair trade practices that benefit foreign manufacturers. 

Wind energy is set to play a crucial role in meeting Europe’s overarching goal of zeroing out greenhouse gases by the middle of the century. 

The EU already has a binding target to cut emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels and earlier this year started a debate about setting an intermediate goal to reduce pollution by 90% by 2040.

The EU exported wind turbines €1.8bn to the the rest of the world in 2023, according to Eurostat data. Imports from China were worth €160m.

“We saw the playbook for how China came to dominate the solar panel industry,” Ms Vestager said.

She said the result is that “nowadays, less than 3% of the solar panels installed in the EU are produced in Europe". 

• Bloomberg