In a Time of Changing Geopolitical Landscape, should the EU re-evaluate its approach to China?

• Confidence in the EU has gradually diminished after a series of crises of values.
• This has enabled the rapid growth of the populist and the far-right parties in the V4 countries, which are causing fragmentation within the EU due to what they perceive as unresolved asylum and migration issues.

The internal fragmentation caused by crisis, austerity measures in the wake of the financial crisis and contested values has led to certain Member States looking elsewhere than the established western order. So far, China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) is playing crucial role in many Member States such as Hungary and Greece.

In sum, the disunity generally strengthens the China’s ability to project power and promulgate its worldview, which weakens the resistance towards human rights violations and the economic barriers that could otherwise complicate China’s economic influence on the EU, i.e. the Belt and Road Initiative.

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