Although a lot of these were constructed with foreign help, there exists within China an ever more competent body of expertise not just in building installations but managing and operating them as well.

Lou in his article in the Financial Times made this clear.

"Traditionally, Chinese involvement in overseas infrastructure projects has been as a contractor only. Now, Chinese investors also see a need to invest in, develop and operate projects."

Hans Hendrischke, professor of Chinese political economy and director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Sydney, believes this will be a natural evolution.

"With all the huge infrastructure projects China has been running, it is now accumulating a considerable amount of technical know-how in a number of areas including energy, transport and, in particular, railways," he says.

"The other advantage they have is that because they are operating in the largest market globally, their companies in these sectors have developed huge economies of scale that nobody else can compete with."

Not all of China's adventures abroad in the infrastructure sector have proved a success, however.

China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC) was the first Chinese company to win a contract to build a highway in Europe three years ago. The Beijing-based company won a $447 million contract to construct a 49-kilometer stretch of Poland's A2 highway.

After completing only a fifth of the work, the Chinese company announced it was withdrawing from the project last year.

Clockwise from above: Kamil Blazek, of the Association for Foreign Investment based in Prague. Stephen Glaister, a leading expert on infrastructure funding. Hans Hendrischke, professor of Chinese political economy at the University of Sydney. Lou Jiwei, chairman of China Investment Corporation. Bernhard Hartmann, managing director of AT Kearney, Greater China.

It is understood COVEC wanted more money to complete the project but this was not forthcoming. Rival European contractors said COVEC underbid them in the tendering process.

Kamil Blazek, chairman of the Association for Foreign Investment and also a partner of the international law firm Kinstellar, based in Prague, says expectations were not managed well on either the Polish or the Chinese side.

"I expect more participation in infrastructure projects in central and eastern Europe but there needs to be more dialogue between all sides to avoid what happened in Poland," he says.

Blazek says there are a lot of opportunities for Chinese investment in the region across a whole range of infrastructure projects.

"Compared with western Europe, the infrastructure in the region is still under-financed and underdeveloped. It is a matter of degree, however. The Czech Republic, for example, has great infrastructure compared to Thailand or even China but is well behind that of France and Germany."

In Hong Kong, Evan Li, a utilities analyst at Standard Chartered Bank, has been busy of late with the number of Chinese investments in European utility companies.

He sees a lot of the latest Chinese moves as a way of securing solid long-term investments through the current financial mayhem.

"Utility assets in Europe, North America and Australia are basically safe harbors in a world where there is a lot of volatility right now," he says.

"In the case of countries like the UK and Australia, the earnings of these companies are hedged against inflation and interest rate movements because of the regulatory regimes there and so you get very clear and stable earnings."

Li adds part of the strategy could be to garner expertise from overseas acquisitions and bring them back to China.

He cites Huaneng Power, one of China's leading power companies, which acquired Tuas Power, the Singapore power generation company, for $3 billion in 1998.

"They won it through a bidding process and one of their strategies was to see how a utilities company was run in the developed world and at the same time apply the lessons in China."

Back in the UK, there is a tendency to see Chinese investment in projects such as the new HS2 rail link and in roads as a sort of magic bullet.

The Chinese have got the money to pay for the infrastructure in return for a steady return and people in Britain don't even have to stump up taxes for their gleaming new 21st century trains.

Stephen Glaister, a leading expert on infrastructure funding, insists that this, in reality, is not the case.

In his cramped office in London's Pall Mall, where he is director of the transport research charity, the RAC Foundation, he says this is one of the myths about this type of funding.

He insists it will be the paying passengers who will eventually pay for the HS2 high speed rail link, if it goes ahead, and it will be the Chinese or other external investors who will be merely providing the finance.

"There is this thin line between financing which is simply getting someone to lend you the money in expectation they will get their money back and the funding which is who pays for it at the end of the day. It is, however, a crucial distinction," he says.

Glaister, who is also professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College, London, says the current government is not reinventing the wheel with this type of finance.

"Take, for example, a nuclear power station, of which there is a strong need in this country because the old ones are coming to the end of their life. You need to find 200 million pounds up front so you go to the French or the Chinese for the finance and they will invest only on the expectation that when the electricity is eventually sold the end users will repay the capital."

Many believe events such as the European financial crisis have presented Chinese corporations with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to buy major infrastructure assets.

The current focus on assets in Portugal, one of the weakest countries in the eurozone, they argue, is no coincidence.

"To be quite frank, I think they have probably got them really cheap because Portugal needs to sell off its silver, so to say," says Bernhard Hartmann, managing director of international management consultants AT Kearney in Greater China.

"What I currently see is a big wave of Western interests trying to find someone in China to bankroll them," he says.

Blazek at the AFI says, however, the Chinese have to be cautious and not just throw their money around.

"When they become involved in infrastructure projects overseas, particularly in construction, they need to do a lot of careful lobbying. They cannot just turn up at the airport and say they have millions for a project, take it or leave it. Not even the Greeks would accept those sort of offers," he says.

Hartmann, an expert in the power utility sector, believes, however, the Chinese are engaged in some form of strategy of the utilities and infrastructure sector worldwide.

"They are following a good old German model. There was once a time when Deutsche Bank owned 10 percent of everything in Germany. It helped them control and develop a set of influences and networks across all industry," he says.