Seven pages brought the turnaround: The representatives of the EU and China were able to agree on a communiqué at their summit on Tuesday. Above all, the representatives of the People’s Republic are said to have made concessions. So they agreed to open the Chinese markets more and allow fair competition. A demand that has been addressed to Beijing for many years, but so far with limited success.
A few days later, on Friday, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang has a much more enjoyable date. Then summit 16 + 1 will start in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where heads of state and government from China and Central and Southeastern Europe will meet. Where the ninth meeting of the 16 + 1 also means its end: Greece is expected to join the format, which thus becomes the 17 + 1. Twelve of the summit participants would then also be EU states. A success for China – and a counterpoint to the tough negotiations at the beginning of the week.
In Brussels, however, the forum is viewed critically. China may have divisive intentions, diplomats worry. In the run-up, there was already speculation as to how long Beijing would even maintain the format, given the disapproval within the EU.
Many billions of dollars invested
However, China does not want to do without it, partly because the Eastern European states are important for the gigantic infrastructure project „New Silk Road“ as an „gateway to Europe“. Especially the Balkans could become an important transport route to Central Europe. Data from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) show that China invested billions of dollars in Eastern Europe between 2007 and 2018, either through loans or direct construction contracts.
The more than $ 100 million projects listed by the AEI’s China Investment Tracker alone add up to just under $ 29 billion. With the exception of 2015 and 2016, the dataset shows a continuous increase, but has no claim to completeness because of the non-transparent project allocation.
China’s investment
According to dataset, by far the largest Chinese activity in Serbia is among the 16 countries (23 projects, total volume more than ten billion dollars). There, Beijing has invested mainly in the steel and armaments industry as well as in smart infrastructure projects. It is followed by Hungary (almost four billion dollars) and Poland (about three billion dollars). Four of the 16 countries do not even exist: Albania, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
