“It seems unlikely to expect China to behave less assertively in the international arena in 2022 than it did last year. The country is facing economic challenges, manifested, for instance, by uncertainty following the crackdown on technology and property companies, energy shortages, demographic challenges, etc.”
Ivana Karásková, CEIAS“The CEE countries have grown disillusioned with Beijing and it would require China to significantly change its approach to make its offer interesting again, especially among the EU member states.”
Filip Šebok, 9dashline“On China, Lipavsky will champion a tougher approach as he has been one of the most consistently outspoken politicians on this issue during his time in parliament.”
Filip Šebok, Euronews“Over the last year and a half year, we have seen a change in Slovak policy towards both Taiwan and China. The current Slovak government has a positive outlook on developing relations with Taiwan but at the same time it does not wish to damage the relations with China.”
Matej Šimalčík, Taiwan Plus News“The problem is that, based on its operation, the China-CEE Institute is certainly not an independent institution, as it was created by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which also manages and funds the institute. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is directly subordinated to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.”
Ivana Karásková, InfoPost“The problem is that, based on its functioning, the CEE-China is definitely not an independent institution as it was established by the Chinese Academy of Science, which is also managing and financing the institute. Chinese Academy of Science is directly subordinated to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.”
Ivana Karásková, EurActiv“Beijing feels it needs to react, because it is afraid that Lithuania will start a domino effect, and other countries may follow in renaming Taipei economic and cultural offices.”
Ivana Karásková, LRT English“Firstly, many in the EU began to experience ‘China fatigue’ or in other words disillusionment with the lack of results of economic cooperation with China…secondly, some decision makers in Western European states are also getting weary of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive behavior.”
Alicja Bachulska, The Diplomat“It was not only the tone of the reporting that changed, but the composition of the covered topics. The media in which CEFC held a stake covered the China-led Belt and Road Initiative with a frequency unparalleled by any of the other analyzed Czech media outlets.”
Ivana Karásková, Reuters“In line with the recent developments in bilateral relations between Taiwan and these countries, building upon the cooperation throughout the pandemic- there were Taiwanese donations of PPE, reciprocated by donations of vaccines from the CEE countries.”
Filip Šebok, The Independent“Central and Eastern European countries may have a lower stake when it comes to smooth EU-China relations based on their relatively low trade dependence with China, which gives them a bigger maneuvering space.”
Ivana Karásková, The Independent“Taiwan has had a lot of economic presence in the country [Slovakia]. Large investments were made by Foxconn in the past and public opinions have a much better view of Taiwan compared to China.”
Matej Šimalčík, William Yang