The recent Czech experience allows one to draw two conclusions concerning China’s economic statecraft in CEE. The first is that there is indeed a conscious attempt to develop a coordinated strategy of economic statecraft using Chinese commercial actors such as CEFC and CITIC. The second is that Beijing’s control of its commercial actors is variable… Continue reading China’s economic statecraft in the Czech Republic: When Chinese businesses go rogue
China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have been engaged recently in dynamic diplomatic exchanges under the umbrella of 16+1 platform and the Belt and Road Initiative. The article offers an explanation of why the massive Chinese diplomatic effort did not lead to an improved image of China in the CEE region. We… Continue reading Friends or foes? How diverging views of communist past undermine the China-CEE ‘16+1 platform’
The following text is a summary of an invitation-only seminar organized by the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) in Bratislava in April 2019, attended by the representatives of several ministries and state bodies, experts from universities and think-tanks as well as journalists. The summary presents an interpretation of the discussion from the perspective of the… Continue reading Political and security implications of Chinese investment in Slovakia
Our Matej Šimalčík was one of the experts asked by ChinaFile about the challenges of EU-China Relations. Matej Šimalčík: Pundits, think tanks, and EU institutions have decried the Beijing-initiated 16+1 platform, which includes China and 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), for disrupting a united EU position on China. Indeed, some CEE countries that take part… Continue reading How Should Europe Handle Relations with China?
Richard Turcsányi shared his view on the future of the China-CEE cooperation for CEECAS (Central and Eastern European Center for Asian Studies). Richard Turcsányi: When it comes to the question, how successful the 16+1 is, the answer depends on what one sees as goals of the 16+1 platform, but in any case, we are leaning… Continue reading Quo Vadis 17+1?
