ABSTRACT
China’s cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was viewed as being a significant gain for Beijing’s outreach in Europe. It seemed to indicate China’s confidence and ability to wield global influence. Yet, the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that despite the affection which China lavished on the CEE countries, they were never really swayed. In fact, it seems that the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong provided the real bifurcation point, splitting the CEE states between those ideationally committed to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and those looking for illiberal alternatives. The pandemic has consolidated this split, and China has been deployed by both camps to justify their strategic choices. Thus, it is the contextual localization of China in domestic political debates—rather than what China necessarily does in the individual CEE states or globally—that informs CEE perceptions of China. The study suggests that the unrequited romance of China with the CEE region has important implications both for China’s public diplomacy and for the post-pandemic trajectories of the Belt and Road Initiative.
