The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative from the Central European Perspective – Rhetoric Versus Reality
The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative from the Central European Perspective – Rhetoric Versus Reality

Summary/Abstract: The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, announced by President Xi Jinping inKazakhstan in 2013, attracted a lot of attention in both the global media, andthe academic community. This vague idea which has been evolving since then, hasnot necessarily led to many practical achievements. Nonetheless, it has become verypopular in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), as their governmentshave perceived it as a chance for diversification in their foreign policies, as wellas in economic relations.Apart from the Belt and Road Initiative, CEEC countries have been implementingconcurrent platform of 16+1 since 2011, being also presented as an importantstepping stone in providing the Chinese with a backdoor entrance to Europe. Inboth cases the reality is far behind expectations, especially in economic terms.Chinese investments are still relatively low in most CEEC countries, especiallyin those that are EU members.This paper will try to assess both initiatives and their convergence by comparingreality with declarations, especially in economic terms. Reference will be madeto certain neo-liberal as well as neo-realist theories and the research will be basedon legal analysis, comparative analysis, as well as mostly on descriptive statistics.

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