China’s Engagement in Central and Eastern Europe: A View from Hungary

REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME SEMINAR

About the Seminar

According to current news and analysis, China is strengthening its relations with Central and Eastern European countries. It is clear that China is interested in extending its soft power in a region which always has been the buffer between Russia and Western Europe. It is true that the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and the Baltic are quite receptive towards Chinese plans. Of these, the Visegrad Four (V4) countries, Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are the most prominent in China’s economic and political engagement with the region. Western European media, politicians and experts often criticize V4 countries, especially Hungary, for their very friendly political relations. But are V4-China relations really so good and these countries are really the “agents” of China? Furthermore, do the four countries share the same motivations in their relations with this global power? This seminar will focus on China V-4 relations individually and collectively, seeking to uncover underlying interests, as well as identify similarities and differences across the various countries.

About the Speaker

Laszlo Vasa is Chief Advisor and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hungary. Within the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, he is responsible for relations with Chinese think tanks and government institutions. Dr Vasa’s main fields of research are economics of transition, Post-Soviet studies, China’s influence and international issues of agricultural economics. After his degrees in agricultural economics, German-Hungarian translation and an international MBA (Webster, US), he completed his PhD at Szent Istvan University, Hungary. Dr Vasa is a professor of Széchenyi István University (Győr, Hungary) and PhD supervisor of doctoral schools in Hungary and abroad, and a member of editorial boards of different refereed international and Hungarian scientific journals.

Registration

For registration, please click here. Registration closes on 30 September 2019.

Date

Oct 02 2019
Expired!

Time

10:00 am - 11:30 am

Location

ISEAS Seminar Room 2