For instance, the government in Warsaw is currently in talks with the Chinese to get them to finance the new Central Airport for Poland, which will also be a huge logistics center with train lines and cargo facilities. Note that EU does not subsidize building new airports. However, the current EU, dominated by a Franco-German alliance, is not seeing the move as beneficiary, because it leads a way for the CEE to export more goods and services to China, which will threaten the current status quo of these aforementioned countries as leaders of EU-China cooperation.
Poland, as the largest country in the region, needs to do everything in its power to be at the center of the BRI to utilize its excellent geostrategic location as well as economical potential.
In what ways is Beijing expanding China’s influence across Eastern Europe?
In the past few years we have seen increased marketing efforts from China to prepare the grounds for the BRI. The foundation of China-sponsored think-tanks, increased academic cooperation, a large influx of Chinese students to the region as well as growing tourist traffic are all clear signals of China’s efforts to build more influence in the region. In recent years major Chinese state-owned banks ̶ Bank of China, ICBC, China Construction Bank ̶ have all set-up shop in Warsaw, Budapest, Prague etc. Apart from receiving Chinese investments, the region is set to play a key role in the future internationalization process of the Chinese yuan (RMB). Last year Poland became the first European country to issue government debt into China’s mainland bond market. Several Chinese financed investment vehicles have been created to finance infrastructure and energy projects in the CEE (Budapest-Belgrade railroad, Montenegro-Serbia highway, etc.) We are also seeing the increased flow of M&A deals with China elements in the region, which will continue to grow in the coming years with China being the biggest player on the global M&A market. For example, HNA is the leading consortium bidding for Belgrade Airport as part of BRI and [in search of a] higher profile in the future EU member state.
