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Eastern Europe's handling of China is a model for Western Europe [1]
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Date: 2023-05-14
Published: 14 May 2023
Estonia and Latvia also quit the mechanism last year, while other central and eastern European countries are believed to have quietly stepped back from any official participation and have no plans to send embassy staff or official delegations to the trade show. Analysts said the Baltic states appeared to be especially wary of China’s “no limits partnership” with Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was originally part of the 17+1 framework. China’s overall trade with them has grown an annual average of 8.1 per cent since 2012, with imports up by an average of 9.2 per cent a year in the same period. The volume of trade between China and central eastern European countries reached US$33.3 billion in the first quarter of the year, Li said, up 1.6 per cent year on year, with the trend “stable and heading in a good direction”. But China’s trade surplus with central and eastern Europe is widening. Imports from the two regions were worth 20.7 billion yuan (US$2.98 billion) last year, down 4.9 per cent year on year, while exports to them increased by 13.8 per cent to 71.5 billion yuan.
China is anxious to restart its trade relationships in Eastern European countries, but they are not overly anxious to build on the past. Unlike Western European countries, France and Germany the Baltic States do take China’s “no limits,” partnership with Russia into consideration when considering trade initiatives.
In 2019 France and Germany had $63 and $182 billion import/export business with China, dwarfing the combined Eastern European trade volumes, so their reluctance to walk away is understandable. On the other hand, the potential growth of the total European market combined with China’s desire to wean Europe off of it US dependency also give France And Germany a lot of leverage in its dealings with China. It seems likely a bit of pressuring China to urge Russia to end its illegal invasion of Ukraine could bear fruit.
It is also likely that China sees a peaceful and prosperous Ukraine as a land link to all of Europe for China, and it’s Central Asia partners. A tougher stance by the Western European countries is in order.
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