5. Viewpoints of Major international Think Tank Scholars

Ever since its creation, China-CEEC Cooperation has attracted extensive attention from Western thinks tanks and scholars. Ample views and comments were voiced, most of which show skepticism over the multilateral nature of the format.

A report of the European Parliament Research Service points out that although China-CEEC Cooperation is defined as multilateralism, it is mostly conducted at bilateral levels.^[7] A report by the French Institute of International Relations claims that to CEECs, China-CEEC Cooperation is a platform to increase bilateral dialogue with China. This was also the view of Poland at the very beginning of the China-CEEC format. Therefore, the format actually highlights its bilateral dimension.^[8] Other research interprets why China-CEEC Cooperation is often described as multilateralism, showing that China believes that the format offers a group of countries opportunities to discuss possibilities of cooperation, but in reality, China uses the format to grow its bilateral relations with the countries involved.^[9] Others are of the view that China-CEEC Cooperation is a combination of a series of bilateral relations, without a unified multilateralism in formation. China focuses more on its bilateral relations with the CEECs, especially with Poland, Hungary, Romania and Serbia.^[10] But there are also opposite views about the format being neither multilateral nor bilateral, in a way that the format enables the Chinese leadership, who are very much subject to time constraints, to meet with leaders of many smaller countries through a “China+” model, which was rarely seen before. In the meantime, such multilateral format is not like an institutionalized bilateral alliance, nor is it a multilateral security cooperation organization that truly deals with strategic matters.^[11]

As a matter of fact, China-CEEC Cooperation does have its own multilateral dimensions, as shown below:

First, it is up to not just China, but also the CEECs to determine whether China-CEEC Cooperation should follow a multilateral or bilateral model, and it takes a process for the format to mature. To develop cooperation at the multilateral level, it requires political readiness, resources and abilities of all parties involved. Only when the interests and strengths of countries can find a synergy with the format, can a truly multilateral cooperation agenda be set. All countries applying for leading a certain sectoral cooperation mechanism under the China-CEEC framework did so voluntarily after taking into consideration their own needs and strengths. This is a manifestation of real multilateralism. However, it takes experiment and coordination for multilateralism to work. That is why some CEEC think tanks believe and all parties agree that the most important internal challenge facing China-CEEC Cooperation is how to handle the differences among countries with their different developmental levels and claims. Such differences inevitably increase the time to reach agreement, but the good news is China and CEECs have succeeded in putting in place a framework for cooperation.^[12] Some researchers give more in-depth reading of these coordination mechanisms and believe that it is a perfect case of combination of bilateralism and multilateralism to let different countries host different coordination mechanisms. On the one hand, these mechanisms are open to all parties. On the other hand, they help tap the potential of certain countries. ^[13]

Second, the multilateral dimension of China-CEEC Cooperation can be found both at the state-to-state level, but also at the local level. There has been a tradition for cooperation between Chinese and CEEC localities, and cooperation has been carried out at different levels. Four China-CEEC Local Leaders’ Meetings have been held, respectively in Chongqing, China, in 2013, in Prague, the Czech Republic, in 2014, in Tangshan, China, in 2016 and Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2018. On 16 June 2016, the Charter of the China-CEEC Association of Provincial Governors was reviewed and adopted at the second Working Meeting of the Association. Mayors’ forum is another example of how cooperation is conducted multilaterally. It includes the China-CEEC Capital Mayors’ Forum and the China-CEEC Mayors’ Forum.^[14] The former has been held for four times consecutively since 2016, while the latter has been held for three years in a row since 2017. Such bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms will surely expand in the future.

Third, it is important that China-CEEC Cooperation should not emphasize excessively on its multilateral dimension while ignoring the importance of its bilateral part. Bilateral cooperation has always been the most fundamental and key part of China-CEEC Cooperation. Ever since its establishment, the format has been defined as such that bilateral cooperation is foundation, while the format serves as a platform and complement. If China’s bilateral relations with every CEEC fail to grow, any attempt to grow China-CEEC Cooperation would be empty talks. ^[15]