This comparative analysis of economic relations between China and the Visegrád countries + Serbia reveals that while China’s role in each of their economies has grown over the last decade, developments have been anything but homogenous, and that concerns about China’s impact on national security will be a critical factor in the success of the “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)”. Using a common analytical framework across each of the chapters, these countries’ relations with China are reviewed in terms of recent bilateral trade and financial data, major investment projects, and the impact of national investment screening activity. A complex overview of bilateral dynamics emerges out of this framework. The variety of results suggests that no matter the disparity between China and its partners in economic power or the financial incentives it may be able to offer, realizing the BRI is dependent on the quality of China’s relations with each of the individual sovereign nations involved.

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This project is supported by the International Visegrad Fund.

Project partners include Prague Security Studies Institute (Czechia, project’s leader),  Institute of Asian Studies(Slovakia), HAS Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute of World Economics(Hungary),  Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE)(Serbia).

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