Ivana Karásková was a guest of a Ground Truth Briefing by the Wilson Center.
China’s Foreign Ministry founded the 17+1 mechanism (China is the “1”) with the nations of Central and Eastern Europe in 2012, in Budapest. The grouping, broadly speaking, is seen by China as a means of promoting cooperation, by CEE nations as a way of attracting Chinese investment, and by Western Europe and the United States as a wedge for weakening European unity and promoting a Sino-centric Eurasia. A new report by China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE) suggests that, seven years into the initiative, 17+1 has a mixed record.
