{"id":44898,"date":"2024-05-07T10:23:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T10:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/07\/xi-to-head-for-friendly-ports-in-an-eastern-europe-disenchanted-with-china\/"},"modified":"2024-05-07T10:23:11","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T10:23:11","slug":"xi-to-head-for-friendly-ports-in-an-eastern-europe-disenchanted-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/07\/xi-to-head-for-friendly-ports-in-an-eastern-europe-disenchanted-with-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Xi to Head for Friendly Ports in an Eastern Europe Disenchanted With China"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/07\/multimedia\/07china-easterneurope-01-qhvb\/07china-easterneurope-01-qhvb-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Xi to Head for Friendly Ports in an Eastern Europe Disenchanted With China\" title=\"Xi to Head for Friendly Ports in an Eastern Europe Disenchanted With China\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, last visited Europe\u2019s formerly communist east in 2016, the president of the Czech Republic hosted him for a flag-bedecked, three-day state visit and offered his country as an \u201cunsinkable aircraft carrier\u201d for Chinese investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That vessel has since sunk, scuppered by China\u2019s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine and bitter disappointment over projects that never materialized. Also capsized are many of the high hopes that took hold across Eastern and Central Europe for a bonanza of Chinese money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So when Mr. Xi returns to the region this week, after a visit to France, he will travel to Serbia and Hungary, two countries whose long-serving authoritarian leaders still offer a haven for China in increasingly turbulent political and economic waters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Czechs, the Poles and nearly everyone else are really pissed at China because of the war,\u201d said Tamas Matura, a foreign relations scholar at Corvinus University of Budapest. \u201cBut in Hungary that is not a problem, at least not for the government\u201d of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mr. Matura said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nor is China\u2019s Kremlin-friendly stand on the war in Ukraine a problem for President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia, who, like Mr. Orban, has maintained warm relations with Russia and China while securing billions of dollars in Chinese investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an interview this week with Chinese state television, Mr. Vucic gave a foretaste of the flattery that will dominate Mr. Xi\u2019s visit: \u201cThere are thousands of things that we can and should learn from our Chinese friends,\u201d the Serbian president said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTaiwan is China \u2014 full stop,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Milos Zeman, the Czech president who welcomed Mr. Xi in 2016, was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/01\/28\/world\/europe\/czech-election-results-pavel-babis.html\" title=\"\">replaced last year by a former senior NATO general, Petr Pave<\/a>l. Mr. Pavel has angered the Chinese government by talking with the president of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory, and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/df41b4a8-97f0-4e20-9ef4-4a53c0ab8f30\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">saying in an interview<\/a> that China \u201cis not a friendly country.\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/13\/world\/europe\/china-europe-czech-republic-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">Chinese investment in the Czech Republic has slowed to a trickle.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Meantime, Chinese money has poured into Hungary and Serbia, cementing close ties underpinned by a shared wariness of the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">China\u2019s showcase infrastructure project in the region, a high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, has been slowed by regulatory and other issues. Of the about 200 miles of track planned, only about 60 miles are operating after five years of work \u2014 a sluggish pace for a project that Beijing sees as a key part of the Belt and Road infrastructure program, Mr. Xi\u2019s pet foreign policy initiative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But promised Chinese investment in other projects has raced ahead, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/biznis.telegraf.rs\/info-biz\/3882684-vesic-zajednicki-projekti-srbije-i-kine-vredni-20-milijardi-dolara\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">totaling nearly $20 billion in Serbia<\/a>, according to its minister of construction, transport and infrastructure, and totaling nearly as much in Hungary, including loans, the terms of which are secret.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ivana Karaskova, a Czech researcher at the Association for International Affairs, an independent research group in Prague, said Hungary and Serbia look to China \u201cnot only for economic gains but also to demonstrate to their domestic electorate that they pursue an independent policy.\u201d That demonstrates to the European Union and the United States that \u201cthey are not the only game in town,\u201d Ms. Karaskova said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">China, she added, \u201cunderstands this dynamic\u201d and Mr. Xi will use it to try to reverse a steady <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/27\/world\/europe\/china-spies.html\" title=\"\">souring of opinion on China in Europe,<\/a> both among ordinary citizens and in institutions like the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A s<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globsec.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-05\/GLOBSEC%20Trends%202023.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">urvey last year of Eastern and Central European countries<\/a> by Globsec, a research group in Slovakia, found that \u201cnegative perceptions of Beijing have soared,\u201d particularly in the Baltic States and the Czech Republic. Even in Hungary, only 26 percent of those surveyed had a positive view of Mr. Xi, compared with 39 percent with a negative view. The rest said they were undecided.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Hungary under Mr. Orban, no matter what the public thinks, has become a \u201csafe political space\u201d for Beijing, Mr. Matura said, and can be counted on to try to soften European Union policy on China and protect it from the fallout from the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The merging of economic and geopolitical interests is particularly pronounced in Serbia, which aspires to join the European Union but has balked at joining the bloc in imposing sanctions on Russia and frustrated E.U. efforts to broker a settlement over Kosovo. A former Serbian territory, Kosovo declared itself an independent state after a NATO bombing campaign, a status that Serbia, supported by Russia and China, has refused to accept.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Xi arrives in Serbia from France on Tuesday \u2014 the 25th anniversary of a mistaken strike by NATO warplanes on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the 1999 bombing campaign. Three Chinese journalists were killed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That incident, which many in China believe was not an accident, created a \u201cstrong emotional bond between Serbs and Chinese,\u201d said Aleksandar Mitic of the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As part of a series of government-sanctioned events in Belgrade ahead of Mr. Xi\u2019s visit, Serbian communists on Monday unfurled banners reading \u201cWelcome President\u201d and \u201cKosovo is Serbia \u2014 Taiwan is China\u201d outside the Chinese Cultural Center in Belgrade, built on the site of the bombed embassy. They demanded that the street outside the center be renamed \u201cChinese Victims of NATO Aggression Street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hungary, too, has bristled at what it sees as bullying by Washington and Brussels, despite its membership in NATO and the European Union, from which it has received billions of euros in aid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Orban\u2019s main interest in China, however, is money and he hopes to turn Hungary, with help from Chinese investors, into a manufacturing hub for E.V.s, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/12\/22\/business\/china-catl-electric-car-batteries.html\" title=\"\">batteries<\/a> and other new technologies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In just the past two years, China has committed to invest more than $10 billion in Hungary, most of it in ventures related to E.V.s \u2014 at a time when the European Union, worried about <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/01\/business\/china-electric-vehicles.html\" title=\"\">China\u2019s growing dominance of the sector,<\/a> is investigating whether Chinese E.V. manufacturers are unfairly subsidized and should be penalized with high tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those assembly lines will take years to build but, in the long run, will help protect Chinese E.V. manufacturers from any future efforts by the European Union to prevent China from dominating the market through tariffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tariffs imposed on imported Chinese electric cars would not apply to those assembled in Hungary, which can ship goods duty-free across the E.U., though they could hit parts imported from China to Hungarian plants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Unlike in most of Europe where governments regularly change \u2014 a democratic churn that can upset Chinese investment plans based on close ties to a particular leader \u2014 Mr. Orban and Mr. Vucic have both been in power for more than a decade and show no sign of going anywhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Chinese feel comfortable in Hungary,\u201d Mr. Matura said. \u201cThe public might not be very fond of China but the government is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By visiting Hungary and Serbia, Mr. Xi, according to analysts, wants to show that while China may be down as an influential player in East and Central Europe, it is not yet out. And, they say, it indicates he has not given up on a Chinese diplomatic initiative known as 16+1, a grouping of China and formerly communist European countries built around Mr. Xi\u2019s flagship Belt and Road program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Furious about the war in Ukraine, three Baltic States have formally quit the grouping, which dates to 2012 and has been a cornerstone of Chinese diplomacy in Europe throughout Mr. Xi\u2019s rule. Others, like the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, technically remain as members but have largely disengaged.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe big debate now among experts around the region is whether 16+1 is dead or just a zombie,\u201d Mr. Matura said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/07\/world\/europe\/xi-serbia-hungary-europe.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, last visited Europe\u2019s formerly communist east in 2016, the president of the Czech Republic hosted him for a flag-bedecked, three-day state visit and offered his country as an \u201cunsinkable aircraft carrier\u201d for Chinese investment. That vessel has since sunk, scuppered by China\u2019s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/07\/multimedia\/07china-easterneurope-01-qhvb\/07china-easterneurope-01-qhvb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,45931,10281,896,27186,8319],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44900,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44898\/revisions\/44900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}