China's Engagement with the Sixteen Countries of Central, East and Southeast Europe under the Belt and Road Initiative

• Author: Anastas Vangeli
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12216
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017

©2017 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China & World Economy / 101–124, Vol. 25, No. 5, 2017

101

*Anastas Vangeli, Doctoral Researcher, Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences,

Poland. Email: anastas.vangeli@gmail.com.

China’s Engagement with the Sixteen Countries of

Central, East and Southeast Europe under the

Belt and Road Initiative

Anastas Vangeli*

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of China’s burgeoning relationship with Central, East

and Southeast Europe (CESEE) in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

China has rapidly expanded the extent of its interactions with CESEE since 2012,

and this region has subsequently become one of the focal points of the BRI. The key

feature of China’s engagement with CESEE is the devising of an experimental and

innovative approach, demonstrated in the establishment of an institutional mechanism

for cooperation with a particular group of 16 CESEE countries (16+1). The case of

China–CESEE relations offers an insight into how, in the era of the BRI, China is

complementing its economic approach with institution-building and policy coordination.

The article concludes that as the BRI progresses, these tendencies will remain central to

China’s relations with CESEE.

Key words: Belt and Road Initiative, foreign relations, 16+1

JEL codes: F0, F1, F5

I. Introduction

In the process of restructuring and upgrading its economy, China has also been

transforming its relationship with the rest of the world. Central to this process has been

the unveiling of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which combines several elements

that define China’s new global role: a strong practical and normative link between

its domestic development and its global orientation (Huang, 2016; Johnson, 2016), a

shift from “keeping a low profile” to “striving for achievement” in its foreign affairs

(Yan, 2014), expanding cooperation with governments in a broad and diverse array of

geographical spaces (Wang, 2016), and ultimately transforming from being a good global

“game player” to a global “game maker” (Qiu, 2015a) and architect of new international

Anastas Vangeli / 101–124, Vol. 25, No. 5, 2017

©2017 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

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institutions (Heilmann et al., 2014). The establishment of the BRI reects that China has

moved beyond what has often been referred to as a “business as usual” and “no strings

attached” approach towards a form of cooperation promoting a common global vision,

which involves aligning policy frameworks and agreеing on global governance issues.

One region that is of specific importance for China’s new diplomacy and the

advancement of the BRI is Central, East and Southeast Europe (CESEE). Over the past

decade, there has been an unprecedented advancement in China’s relationship with this

region. However, the current literature on this topic offers little systematic analysis

and assessment of the significance of this relationship, and contextualization of the

recent developments. Therefore, the present paper aims to analyze the importance of

China–CESEE relations, examining China’s engagement in this region as inherent to

the broader process of China’s evolving global role. The present paper uses official

documents and data on China–CESEE relations and the BRI, as well as participant

observations collected at China–CESEE forums.

This paper is structured as follows. Section II discusses why China views CESEE

as important for the advancement of the BRI by looking at the shift in China’s global

vision and five specific characteristics of CESEE, including CESEE’s construction

and functionalism as a region, CESEE’s geographical location, CESEE’s structural

characteristics, CESEE’s integration in the European market and the particular political

relevance for China. Section III analyzes how the BRI has been implemented so far in the

CESEE, looking in particular at China’s diplomatic innovations and institution-building,

the development of economic cooperation, and the example of the China–Europe land–

sea express project as a highlight of the BRI for CESEE. Section IV concludes.

II. Why Central, East and Southeast Europe Matters for the

Belt and Road Initiative?

In the ocial discourse, Chinese foreign policy analysts have written at length on the

importance of the new relationship between China and CESEE, and how it relates to the

BRI. China–CESEE relations have been labeled one of the “highlights” of China’s new

diplomacy (Liu, 2013), and the region of CESEE has been labeled as one of “strategic”

importance for the BRI (Liu, 2016b), and a “key platform for the Belt and Road Initiative

to take hold in Europe” (Yu, 2016). In 2016 Chinese President Xi Jinping visited three

countries in this region on two separate trips. The rst countries in Europe with whom

China signed memorandums of understanding (MoU) to join the BRI were CESEE

countries. The BRI has been promoted on a regional level, and by early 2017 a total of