China in Central and Eastern Europe: the unintended effects of identity narratives

Emilian Kavalski ()
Additional contact information
Emilian Kavalski: University of Nottingham

Asia Europe Journal, 2019, vol. 17, issue 4, No 4, 403-419

Abstract: Abstract The Central and East European (CEE) part of the Eurasian landmass is often overlooked in the conversations on contemporary geopolitics. Yet, owing to China’s relations with the CEE countries, the region has been subject to growing strategic attention. This article offers a brief overview of the history of this relationship by focusing on the “17+1” mechanism. Nestled within the broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the “17+1” has provided a unique regional arrangement for extending Chinese influence in the sixteen CEE countries. The article inquires whether there is something else than the instrumental economic reasoning for the willingness of CEE countries to partner with China. The analysis detects three distinct strategic narratives motivating the participation of CEE states in the “17+1” mechanism. The study concludes with an enquiry on China’s preparedness to respond to such identity geopolitics not only in the CEE region, but throughout the vast expanse covered by the BRI initiative.

Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10308-019-00563-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:asiaeu:v:17:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s10308-019-00563-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... es/journal/10308/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10308-019-00563-1

Access Statistics for this article

Asia Europe Journal is currently edited by Ulrich Volz and Lay Hwee Yeo

More articles in Asia Europe Journal from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().