Ten Years of Belt & Road – Quo Vadis?
A decade ago, President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative. Promising large infrastructure projects, the initiative was welcomed by vastly underinvested countries all over the world. Also on […]
Asia-Pacific
Publications
My Summer in Beijing
When I told people that I was planning to travel to China for the first time since the pandemic, many strongly warned me against it. Many European academics have become […]
Southeast Asia’s Hedging: A Strategic Opportunity for the European Union?
Southeast Asia is among the regions where the intensification of Sino-American rivalry is most felt. Notwithstanding attempts by both competitors, the regional states are not willing to take sides, adopting […]
External publications
‘Remonstrating,’ or the Art of Forging Relations
During the highly mediatized state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to China in April 2023, the ‘People’s Daily’ (Renmin ribao), the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), […]
Commentaries
EU-China: we have to talk about (not Macron but) strategy
Most people don’t like to hear inconvenient truths, especially not, it seems, from the President of France. Yet when Macron says that the European Union should become the third pole, […]
China’s 14th National People’s Congress: No Ordinary Cups of Tea
Compared to the periods of imperial rule that precede it, the Song dynasty government (960–1279) was more autocratic than any Chinese government had been. Under a growing Mongolian threat to […]