Crossing the River in the Same Boat? China’s Institutional Statecraft in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia

Alongside the ongoing restructuring of international relations, accelerated by Sino-American competition and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, scholars are increasingly interested in how China is shaping and advancing its vision of the global order and how the targeted states respond to it. So far, research on this topic has revolved around case studies focusing on individual states and specific regions worldwide. However, there hasn't been a comparative analysis specifically focusing on the recent China-led institutions in Eurasia.This seminar talk examines two China-initiated frameworks: the China-Central and Eastern Europe (14+1) and the China-Central Asia (C+C5). It aims to identify similar patterns and variations in their institutional design and explore their implications for China's broader strategic objectives.

The talk intertwines regional and systemic analyses. It scrutinizes the design of the platforms, assessing their features at the regional level, and explores related binding and wedging behaviors at the systemic level. The findings reveal flexibility as one of the key features of the design of these frameworks. This feature enables China to conduct a 'general binding' approach while utilizing the initial steps of the binding process to address short- to medium-term 'wedging' purposes in both examined regions.

Maryia Danilovich is a Humboldt postdoc at the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS), University of Göttingen. Currently, she is a guest researcher at IRES. Her ongoing research projects examine China’s recent institutional engagement in Central Asia, China’s involvement with Belarus, and China’s negotiation techniques.

Andreea Budeanu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Security, Strategy and Diplomacy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research focuses on China's influence in Europe in the context of the US-China rivalry.