While purported to be an apolitical showcase of athletics, free from the troubles of the present geopolitical climate, the Beijing Olympics appear to be off to an inauspicious start even before the opening ceremony. 

Leading up to the games, several countries including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Belgium, and Denmark, as well as CEE nations like Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia have announced a diplomatic boycott of the games. Further, New Zealand, Sweden, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Austria have backed away from sending representation on COVID grounds. 

As such, state propaganda that most definitely sought to promote the positive view of China at a pivotal point in its history will be diminished. As the games kick-off, the presentation amidst the political overhang looks as though it may be just as interesting to observe as the athletics itself. Malin Oud, head of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute's Stockholm office and Team Leader of its Economic Globalization and Human Rights thematic area joins the podcast to outline all of the issues and implications.

This Month's Guest

Show Notes

Via the 16+1 platform, the Belt and Road, the Digital Silk Road, and more, there is no shortage of Chinese investment initiatives touching the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. This includes infrastructure projects dotting the Western Balkans, data centers in Hungary, and significant FDI directed at strategically important EU nations like Poland. Over their life span, these investments have been met with both adulation and excoriation. 

Indeed, many of the projects that were once welcomed as life-saving investments, adding to much needed FDI inflows in the wake of the Great Recession and European debt crisis. Yet, especially as investment is wielded as a coercive instrument, many European partners are now increasingly skeptical of Chinese investment, especially in light of the political price tags now clearly attached.

As such, assessing China's incentives and aims for investment in the CEE region are of paramount importance. That task will be tackled in the latest Voice for CHOICE podcast.

Make the right CHOICE and tune in!

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While it has faded from the popular discourse a bit in recent months, the turn of the year will quickly catapult Central and Eastern European nations to another meeting with the China via the recently downsized 16+1 mechanism. 

The upcoming convening of nations is certainly due to attract attention as the withdrawal from the format by Lithuania and lower level representation via numerous states now inching closer to Taiwan has thrown the format into turmoil. However, the format is not entirely unique and there are numerous lessons that CEE China-watchers can draw from China's broader efforts to court nations on the international periphery and broader global south. Further, China will now have to compete for the attention of CEE nations with other formats, a major discussion of the ensuing podcast.

To observe this broader picture, Jakub Jakóbowski, senior fellow with the OSW China Program and coordinator of the  Connectivity in Eurasia project, joins the latest episode. 

Make the right CHOICE and tune in!

This month's guest:

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Lithuania has certainly not been shy about bucking the status quo in terms of relations with Beijing.

Whether it be committing to a fight for freedom “from Belarus to Taiwan”, a withdrawal from the 17+1 format, or a resolution on the Uyghur situation in China, the small Baltic nations has been eager to make its voice heard. As of late, this has been most vocally displayed in terms of tighter ties with Taiwan. This culminated in the summer, with the announcement that Taiwan is opening its representative office in Vilnius and will utilize its name, Taiwan, rather than other nomenclature typically utilized to placate the One China Policy. 

Of course, this has been met with fiery criticism from prominent Chinese diplomats and state media outlets, warning of dire consequences. In the latest episode, we sit down with two experts on both international relations and economics to assess Lithuania's trajectory as of late as well as the potential for China's punishment.

This Month’s Guests: 

Hungary has had its share of issues as of late, ranging from its import of Chinese vaccines sans EMA approval, to blockage of EU statements on human rights abuses in China, to the politically problematic (and quite pricey) establishment of Fudan University's campus in Budapest. Indeed, for the very first time, China is shaping up to be a key political issue for the upcoming elections in 2022 for the Central European nation.

To get a handle on all of the issues swirling around Prime Minister Orban at this critical time, his promotion of pro-China policies, and the public sentiment surrounding Sino-Hungarian relations, Hungarian journalist and researcher Szabolcs Panyi joined the latest Voice for CHOICE podcast.

This Month's Guest: Szabolcs Panyi, Investigative journalist at Hungarian independent journal Direkt36, three time Soma Award winner for best Hungarian investigative journalism in 2015, 2016 and 2020, and founder of VSquare, a cross-border investigative journalism initiative in the Visegrád region.

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Human rights are increasingly taking center stage in Sino-European relations, supplanting the economic impacts that had previously held primacy. Indeed, as quickly as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese FDI, and the 17+1 platform ignited the hopes of the Central European region and its leaders, the human rights issue and revelations from the Xinjiang region have just as quickly soured public opinion. At the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, there are certainly no fewer human rights issues to tackle beyond just Xinjiang, but Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and even beyond China's generally accepted borders.

To parse the important aspects of human rights issues' heightened profile, Eyck Freymann joins the latest episode to add his opinion on the trajectory of this topic as well as insights on the transatlantic angle in the human rights debate on China.

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This podcast is hosted by Kevin Curran

As Serbia continues to pursue a multi-vector strategy that heavily relies upon China and China itself further highlights cooperation in the Balkans not only on vaccines, but in infrastructure investment along the Belt and Road, as it did in the most recent 17+1 summit, curious eyes are increasingly drawn to China's activities in the region. However, the cooperation across the broader Western Balkan region has not been without issues, especially as activists complain of environmental damage along China's flagship project in the Balkans and governments, like that of Montenegro, fall into insurmountable debt to China’s Exim Bank.

To assess the level of threat that each of China's projects across the Western Balkans pose, CSIS senior fellow Jonathan Hillman and his colleagues devised a flag system by which each project can be judged and the major indicators that onlookers should be wary of when judging each project. To hear the results of the study and the prospects for China's continued cooperation with Western Balkan nations, make the right choice and tune in!

This podcast is hosted by Kevin Curran

Janka Oertel and Kevin Curran Discuss the recent CAI, climate policy, the 17+1 keynote from Xi Jinping, and more.

Special Double Episode Featuring Janka Oertel and Isabel Hilton on China and climate policy.

The podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Breaker, PocketCasts, and Soundcloud.

As both the EU-China CAI 17+1 summit begin to fade from view and more challenges yet emerge for China and their relations with both the EU and CEE nations, the Voice for CHOICE  podcast is picking up on one of China's evermore present promises in such high-profile meetings and agreements in 2021, that of climate cooperation

It is a topic rife with contradictions both in China's domestic actions and its initiatives abroad, such as the BRI in CEE nations. However, as China is the world's most populous nation and its largest polluter in absolute terms, it is a topic that affects us all and is thus worthy of keen attention. Make the right CHOICE and tune in!

This month’s show features analysis from: Isabel Hilton,  Founder and Senior advisor to China Dialogue, an independent organisation aimed at understanding and analyzing of China’s environmental challenges.

Show Notes:

This podcast is hosted by Kevin Curran