Abstract The world is in a turbulent period with frequent geopolitical risks. The geopolitical risks are closely related to the political and economic security of relevant countries, regions and even the whole world, and geopolitical changes have attracted wide attention from various stakeholders. With the continuous expansion of the scale of overseas investments of the Chinese business community, the international situation and risks faced by enterprises are becoming increasingly complex and variable, and geopolitical risks have become a significant factor affecting the overseas interests of Chinese enterprises. By observing the interaction between political and economic factors with the international system, the analytical methods of international political economy can be used to comprehensively explore the political and economic risks of the Chinese overseas investments. Actually, the imbalance of structural power intensifies the effects of geopolitical risks. This paper holds that, from the perspective of structural power and its geopolitical risk mechanism, the protection of overseas interests of the Chinese business community is deeply influenced by the power game of major countries, and it is closely related to Chinese overseas strategic arrangements. Also, it is increasingly restricted by transnational rules. Thus, China should continue to strengthen the strategic capability of protecting the overseas interests in terms of the dimensions of security, production, finance and knowledge.
2023, Vol. 31 
