China's growing troubles in Central and Eastern Europe
The ninth 17+1 summit [1] between China and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), delayed in 2020 due to the pandemic, was finally held virtually in February 2021. Beijing sought to upgrade the annual interaction with a few ‘firsts’ in this recent summit. It was for the first time that President Xi Jinping hosted the summit himself instead of Premier Li Keqiang. He introduced a range of additional China-CEE initiatives, including agriculture exports and cloud service dialogues. By offering to double China’s food imports from Eastern Europe over the next five years, it has sought to appeal ...