Balkan Insight: China's Balkan Largesse Comes at a Price, Expert Warns

Our Michal Vít in an interview for Balkan Insight commented on the Chinese investments in the Balkan states.

Balkan states should beware the downsides of Chinese investment and recognise that the lack of any 'transformative' element is not a bonus but a potential brake on their European Union ambitions.

These projects are needed, it is good that something is happening and at least some money is disseminated and these people (in the Balkans) at the moment seem to feel acknolwedged by someone else, in this case China. 

Therefore, the interest of China in the Western Balkans and towards the EU is much more long-term oriented than the current trade 'wars' between the US and China, which is hard to imagine in a region where short-sightedness dominates over strategic thinking.

You can find the whole interview here.

Michal Vít
Research Fellow (until September 2018)

Topics: Political parties, National identity, V4