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China’s Long March to Central and Eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2018

Weiqing Song*
Affiliation:
Department of Government and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Room 4022, Humanities & Social Sciences Building (E21), Avenida da Universidade, Taipa, Macao SAR, China. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This essay provides a timely account of China’s recent initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), centring on the ‘16+1’ format. It discusses China’s motivation in this part of Europe in relation to its ‘Go Global’ policy and, more recently and relevantly, the ‘One Road, One Belt’ initiative. It argues that China has made big efforts to strengthen its presence in CEE through state-driven commercialism. While there have been some meaningful outcomes, particularly in building institutional ties, China’s ambition in the CEE region faces some practical and deep-rooted obstacles. Put succinctly, there is still a long way to go before China becomes a mature global power.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2018 

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References

References and Notes

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