In today’s episode, we discuss ways in which geopolitics increasingly affects global connectivity, how China’s connectivity proposal compares to that of the EU, and what should the EU do in the context of connectivity becoming a battleground for Sino-American rivalry. It is through this lens that we will take a look at the Central and Eastern Europe (including the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood) to see how those dynamics play out in practice.

Jakub Jakóbowski is the Coordinator of the Connectivity in Eurasia Project, as well as a Senior Fellow at the China Programme at the Centre for Eastern Studies, a public think-tank based in Warsaw. He specializes in China's international political economy, as well as CEE-China and EU-China relations. We highly recommend his report 'The Silk  Railroad. The EU-China rail connections: background, actors, interests' as well as his publications on the China-CEE 17+1 format.

In today’s episode, we discuss EU’s diversification of supply chains, the idea of change-through-trade and the new buzzword that you can hear all over Brussels - the open strategic autonomy. All this sheds some light on topics that can we expect to come up in EU discussions on China in the coming months.

Iuliu Winkler is an MEP from EPP Group, the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, within which he is the rapporteur on China, and also a member of the EP’s delegation for relations with the PRC. Prior to becoming an MEP, Mr. Winkler was the Communications Minister as well as the Minister-Delegate for Trade (Head of Foreign Trade Department) in Romania.

In today’s episode, we take a look at relations between Sweden and China, which say a lot about the challenge of balancing values and interests in China policy. We discuss a number of topics, such as the detainment of the Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, Sweden’s 2019 China strategy, and the costs of political fallout with China. All of this in order to draw lessons for the EU and other member states of the block on how to handle systemic rivalry with China.

Björn Jerdén is the Head of Asia Program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, where he focuses his research on China and frequently comments on Sino-Swedish relations. He has been a visiting fellow at National Chengchi University, National Taiwan University, and Harvard University. We recommend that you read his recent publications: “Sweden: Not quite friends in need with China amid the COVID-19 crisis” and “China’s propaganda campaign in Sweden, 2018–2019”.

In this episode, we take a look at Hungary’s China policy and some of the key projects of Sino-Hungarian relations, including the controversial Belgrade-Budapest railway. But we also tackle some wider questions, such as whether Hungary’s China policy is driven primarily by national interest or the personal vision of its prime minister.

Tamás Matura is the Founder of the Central and Eastern European Center for Asian Studies, a permanent Assistant Professor of Corvinus University of Budapest, and a founding member of the European Think Tank Network on China. He has worked as a research fellow of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and served as an adviser on China to the Minister of National Economy, as an editor of the China Strategy of Hungary, and as an author of the BRICS Strategy of Hungary.

In this episode, we look at the business environment in China and the current standing of European businesses in the Chinese market. We will cover the Business Confidence Survey recently released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. But we will go well beyond that, so stay tuned to hear about the impact of COVID-19 on European businesses in China, progress on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investments, and what we can expect from the economic policies that came out of the Two Sessions. We will discuss this with a guest who is in the middle of it all.

Charlotte Roule is Vice President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, a member of the Jinan Mayor’s International Economic Consultation Committee, and an external trade advisor for the French Government.

In today’s episode, we take a look at the 17+1 China-Central and Eastern Europe cooperation, evaluate its political and economic substance, and investigate how it ties into wider EU-China relations.

Ivana Karásková is a China Research Fellow and a Project Coordinator at the Prague-based Association for International Affairs (AMO) and the coordinator of the China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), a collaborative international platform bringing together China experts from 17 CEE countries.

In today’s episode, we discuss the growing role of China in setting global technical standards and clear up this vital, highly technical topic.

Our guest is a Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, where he focuses on China’s industrial and economic policies, and their impact on Europe - in this context, he also researches technical standardisation. He is a member of the China Task Force of the European standardisation organisations CEN and CENELEC, and provides expertise on technical standards to many organisations, including the European Commission.

In today’s episode, we investigate the complexities of Sino-Italian relations, which over the last few weeks—like a focusing lens—brought together many interesting topics: the outbreak of COVID-19, China’s disinformation campaigns, Euroscepticism, and wider discussions on EU solidarity.

Our guest is an Analyst at the Berlin-based MERICS, a leading European think tank focused on China. She researches EU-China relations and China’s public diplomacy strategies in Europe, and also has experience working on China’s domestic policies at the EU Delegation to the PRC. Being Italian, she frequently comments on Sino-Italian relations and can help us shed light on the rapidly changing dynamics of Italian-Chinese interactions.

In today’s episode, we take a look at the recent Sino-Czech fallout, which highlights some very important dynamics happening between China and countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The fascinating Czech case has a lot to teach us about the agency and dynamics of local politicians and personal interests.

Our guest is the programme director at an independent think tank, the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, an assistant professor at Mendel University in Brno, and a Key Researcher at Palacky University in Olomouc, where he develops an EU-funded project, Sinophone Borderlands.

In today’s episode, we talk about building European unity towards China. This topic often returns in discussions on EU-China relations, as unity seems as necessary as it is idealistic. But what is it exactly and how can it be achieved?

Our guest is a veteran China-watcher and an MEP, who has served at the European Parliament for over a decade, representing the German Green Party. He is the Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China and a Member of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the United States, but he wears many more hats, including that of a member of the Sino-German Dialogue Forum.

In today’s episode, we look at Central Europe—in particular, Poland and Hungary—to explore EU-China relations in this region. We will take a wider geostrategic perspective, but also explain perspectives of these two Central European actors.

Our guest is the Director of the Center for Europe at the University of Warsaw and a lifelong diplomat, who served as an Ambassador on multiple posts in Asia and as a chief of the policy cabinet for the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. As a Polish sinologist who calls Hungary his second home and researches European integration, he has a unique insight into Polish and Hungarian perspectives on EU-China relations and wider global power shifts.

We dive into the topic of Brexit and its impact on EU-China relations. We will discuss the role that the United Kingdom played within the European debate on China and hear some predictions about post-Brexit dynamics.

Our guest today is John Farnell, a former European Commission’s Director responsible for international affairs at DG Enterprise (now DG GROW) and a Senior Advisor at the EU-Asia Centre think tank in Brussels. In his work, he co-shaped EU-China economic relations, which he is continuing to study as a Research Associate at the University of Oxford China Centre.