China courts eastern Europe investment in wake of US trade battle
Premier Li Keqiang attends annual regional summit that has prompted concerns in Brussels that China may be undermining the EU
As a trade war rages between China and the US, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is meeting leaders from central and eastern Europe in Bulgaria on Saturday to discuss investment opportunities.
Road and rail projects funded by China will be high on the agenda at the summit, which has raised concerns in Brussels and richer Western European countries about growing Chinese influence in the region.
At the seventh annual gathering of the so-called “16+1 cooperation”, Li will meet leaders and firms from 11 EU member states and five Balkan nations hoping to join the bloc.
Their talks will focus on joint ventures in industry and the hi-tech sector as well as infrastructure, agriculture and tourism, the Bulgarian hosts said in a statement.
But there are fears the summit could be an attempt by China to vie with EU projects and aid by funding infrastructure under its global Belt and Road Initiative and thus divide the bloc.
“The meetings have prompted considerable speculation in Brussels and other European capitals that they are a Chinese effort to ‘divide and rule’ Europeans,” a December 2017 report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said.
Li hurried to downplay the EU’s concerns on Friday.