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Embarrassing no-shows at China’s summit are a sign Europe is charting a new course

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Something went badly awry when China’s President Xi Jinping called together the leaders of 17 nations of central and eastern Europe this month. The event was the annual 17 + 1 summit – that’s 17 Europeans and one China. The one easily outweighs the 17 in its sheer economic bulk.

Not only is its economy seven times the size of all the European members put together, it also brings a sack of cash and promises of huge economic benefits each year. It’s Xi’s primary pathway for driving his colossal Belt and Road infrastructure juggernaut, also known as the “new silk road”, across Europe’s poor periphery and into its wealthy core.

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Six European leaders snubbed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent summit.CREDIT:AP


The initiative “demonstrates that China has already become a fully fledged European power” said Emilian Kavalski, a professor of silk road studies at the University of Nottingham campus in Ningbo, China, in 2019.
And the Chinese Communist Party’s media has hailed the 17 + 1 as a “pioneering feat of great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”.

So what would you call the 17 + 1 minus six? An embarrassment, at the very least, when six of the European leaders stayed away from the latest summit.

It “looked decidedly like the 11 + 1,” said Politico’s Stuart Lau, “when half of the 12 EU national leaders invited to the club failed to show up to pay homage to Chinese President Xi Jinping. It’s a stinging diplomatic setback for Xi.” Even the lure of access to

China’s coronavirus vaccines failed to impress. And they didn’t even have to make the effort of travelling to the summit – it was held on video link.

The central and eastern European leaders have felt increasingly let down by Beijing’s failure to deliver. And some of the promises that were delivered have failed to satisfy. A $US750 million ($953 million) loan to build a Belt and Road highway in tiny Montenegro is being blamed for the county’s national debt blowout to 80 per cent of GDP.


Its president, Milo Djukanovic, went to Beijing a few days before the summit to complain to a gathering of Chinese investors by quoting strategic aphorisms from ancient China’s Sun Tzu, according to The South China Morning Post: “If there is no skill in planning, it is difficult to achieve, and if there is no skill in planning, it will fail.”

Access to the Chinese market was another sore point for several. Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was “dissatisfied” with the speed of China’s market opening to farm produce.

And while China is a formidable presence in Europe, the snub by the leaders of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is just one of many indicators of a growing European wariness of Beijing.

A threshold moment was the European Commission’s 2019 formal designation of China as a “systemic rival”. Still, Europe was reluctant to abandon its collective dream of Chinese money as the source of its future prosperity.
European ambiguity was on display in March 2019, shortly after the designation of China as a “systemic rival”. Xi Jinping flew to

Paris and, after a champagne toast with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then-president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and French President Emmanuel Macron, he tested their seriousness.

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Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Xi Jinping and Jean-Claude Junker had a telling exchange in 2019. CREDIT:AP


Did the Europeans really mean it, calling China a “systemic rival”, Xi wanted to know? As The Wall Street Journal reported it, first “Merkel demurred with a compliment for Mr Xi, saying the language showed Europe recognised China’s growing strength and influence”. Next, “Juncker cut the tension with a joke about the EU’s inability to agree on what China was”, said the Journal. But Macron was blunt. It’s true, the French President said. You are a rival. Within weeks, a French naval ship sailed through the Taiwan Straits in defiance of Xi’s wishes.

Since then, Europe has become more like Macron, less like Merkel. The pandemic, and China’s conduct, hardened mounting suspicion of Beijing. The percentage of people saying they had “no trust in Xi Jinping to do the right thing in world affairs” across six European nations grew by between 9 per cent and 21 per cent in a Pew poll published last October. The total with no trust in Xi now stood at 70 per cent in the Netherlands, 78 in Germany and 80 in France. “If 2019 was the year when Europeans began having serious doubts about Beijing’s geopolitical intentions, 2020 may go down in history as the moment they turned against China in defiance,” wrote Andreas Kluth, former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global.

“Because China, by trying to capitalise on the pandemic with a stunningly unsophisticated propaganda campaign, inadvertently showed Europeans its cynicism,” he wrote for Bloomberg. For example, in France when the Chinese embassy published a wild accusation that French retirement homes leave old people to die. Or in Italy when Chinese sockpuppets insinuated that the virus had originated in Europe. Or in Germany when Chinese diplomats urged government officials to heap public praise on China.

Under its new, tougher stance, the EU is shutting China out of its signature new research initiative, Horizon Europe, which aims to lift EU science spending by 50 per cent to some 100 billion euros ($153 billion) between now and 2027.

The EU aims to exclude nations that don’t share “EU values”, according to Maria Cristina Russo, director for international co-operation in research and innovation at the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU. Similarly, the commission is drawing up guidelines to limit foreign interference in universities and research institutes. Governments increasingly are challenging China’s Huawei, too.

But what about the big news event of just a couple of months ago, when the EU signed its long-awaited Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with China? That agreement is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament, and it’s meeting resistance. Some members are critical of China’s conduct in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, said that “even the most fundamental research cannot just ignore geopolitical implications because co-operation and interdependence can be weaponised and is being weaponised as we speak”.

And across the channel, a former part of the EU, Britain, too is hardening its stance against the Chinese Communist Party’s policies. Public opinion is again leading the way. A new poll by the British Foreign Policy Group finds that 79 per cent of people named China a potential security threat, just behind Russia. London is now banning Huawei and demanding UN inspectors be given access to China’s Xinjiang province.

Europeans increasingly are turning away from Xi and his Belt and Road to find their own way.

 
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I had to look up the 17+ referred to here but lo and behold. These are minor league players in europe invited by China:lol:

Slovenia, Bulgeria, Estonia? Hungary and Greece like really? These are sort of poor countries and have no influence and probably considered followers of other europeans. Never invite irrelevant players of the continent or create a forum with them because they follow the lead of the elite in the area meaning if the bigger players in Europe tell them to exit they will all exit this 17+1 forum:lol:

In order to make solid in roads in Europe you need connection with these on the western side and to be exact you need connection with 15 countries who have strong lobbies in the EU perhaps I would say Germany and Beligium are the ultimate leaders of Europe. Angela Merkel! and others closely allied to her have also lobby influence.

1.Germany
2.France
3.Beligium
4.Switzerland
5.Austria
6.Spain
7.Portugal
8.UK
9.Sweden
10.Denmark
11.Norway
12.Finland
13.Netherlands
14.Italy
15.Ireland

The once China invited are sort of outisde of the european elite club specifically these from East Europe they have no lobby power or political influence in the region except following the big players.

Most of the wealth in Europe is situated in these 15 countries and also they are the open society free world countries in Europe while the rest are trying but they have human rights issues which also prevents tourists and other expats from going to their territories. I would say like 80% of the wealth in Europe is concentrated there. The rest simply follow lead specifically the minor once who are outside of the western corner
 
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The meeting is for central and eastern Europe. Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia didn't show up because China is going to build the Serbian canal that will make them lose money when completed. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is due to Russia being a Chinese Ally.
 
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The meeting is for central and eastern Europe. Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia didn't show up because China is going to build the Serbian canal that will make them lose money when completed. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is due to Russia being a Chinese Ally.

I don't think Estonia, Liithuania, Lativa exited because of Russia but because of NATO and since they are NATO forward bases and firmly NATO controlled and influenced.

Countries that would likely drop out next are the following Croatia, Albania, Hungary, Chezh Rep, Poland and North Macedonia. The only ones that I think will remain are the greeks they seem to have an independent policy and need the extra cash.

But with a little pressure from the top these remaining countries could exit this forum. If China wants any solid in roads on Europe and a solid base it needs to lobby these mentioned countries specifically the Germans and Belgians. They are not that difficult to engage or lobby. You just need to be generous with your gifts to the upper top guys or as they call it comissions
 
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I don't think Estonia, Liithuania, Lativa exited because of Russia but because of NATO and since they are NATO forward bases and firmly NATO controlled and influenced.

Countries that would likely drop out next are the following Croatia, Albania, Hungary, Chezh Rep, Poland and North Macedonia. The only ones that I think will remain are the greeks they seem to have an independent policy and need the extra cash.

But with a little pressure from the top these remaining countries could exit this forum. If China wants any solid in roads on Europe and a solid base it needs to lobby these mentioned countries specifically the Germans and Belgians. They are not that difficult to engage or lobby. You just need to be generous with your gifts to the upper top guys or as they call it comissions

Estonia, Liithuania and Lativa also has little to no Chinese investment so no matter what happen they will not earn China money. Russia is better any way. The rest don't need to show up but will have little to no Chinese investment in the future and might as well depend on hand outs.
 
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Western tabloid mouthpiece reporting is at elementary levels. I guess enough to be able to brainwash domestic audience.

Trade with CEEC countries grew in 2020. The number of land connections to and via CEEC reached 59.

Several CEEC countries use multiple vaccines, smartly.
 
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might as well depend on hand outs.

This is ultimately what matters most to these smaller countries they need trade with Europe and closer by regions. Getting acceptance from the EU headquarters in Brussels means everything to them and to be honest they have tribalistic mindset if they are suspicious there is not much to do because the top will pressure the others against what they view as common threat.

Instead China should trade with the bigger once and jump over the small ones. Trade with UK, France, Germany, Netherlans, Spain, Italy, Belgium etc etc. Just ignore these East European outbacks
 
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This is ultimately what matters most to these smaller countries they need trade with Europe and closer by regions. Getting acceptance from the EU headquarters in Brussels means everything to them and to be honest they have tribalistic mindset if they are suspicious there is not much to do because the top will pressure the others against what they view as common threat.

Instead China should trade with the bigger once and jump over the small ones. Trade with UK, France, Germany, Netherlans, Spain, Italy, Belgium etc etc. Just ignore these East European outbacks

You forgot 1 important thing: Those Eastern European countries are being used by China to make Western Europe jealous. At the end of the day it is Western Europe that is much more important for China. Eastern Europe countries are being used as distraction. Apart from bride materials for old men/single men in west-europe, there is nothing substantial that east-europe can offer or replace west-europe.

Take for instance my senior colleague. He is 46 years, single, never married but suddenly announced his engagement with 23 years old polish woman last year. He is not the only one though. Many eastern european women are trying to wed western european men.
 
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