Last summer, with Russia's gruelling war in Ukraine shifting the geopolitical sands in Europe, Beijing dispatched a veteran envoy to tour the bloc's eastern front. Beijing's cosy ties with Moscow had soured its image across the region, compounding a situation that had worsened over the Covid-19 pandemic, when the country's reputation across Europe took a battering. Huo Yuzhen, a former Chinese ambassador to the Czech Republic and Romania, visited eight countries in three weeks, one flank of a wi
The recent withdrawal of the Baltic countries from the ‘17+1’ format displays changing perceptions of China due to its ambiguity towards the war in Ukraine.
As Estonia and Latvia join Lithuania in exiting China’s cooperation initiative with Central and Eastern Europe, it is becoming clear the Russian invasion of Ukraine is redefining global geopolitics, specifically Chinese involvement in the region.
Across Central and Eastern Europe, Beijing's partnership with Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine has governments distancing themselves from Chinese initiatives and looking for alternatives.