Chinese Structural Power in Central and East Europe: A Case Study of Hungary and Serbia

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including the Western Balkans, has been considered an area with exclusive European Union (EU) influence. This started to change with the rising Chinese influence, represented by large infrastructure projects, acquisitions of companies, and the development of companies/factories from scratch. China formed its strategy through the “16+1” framework, a platform of cooperation with the CEE states, as a part of its larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This rapid increase of economic investments created worries that China might be using its economic influence as leverage in other spheres, such as politics and diplomacy as well. Departing from other studies that view China’s influence narrowly; as threatening to EU-established institutions, or as an absence of such threat, this study contends that China’s influence should be understood in a more broad and multifaceted manner. Therefore, the study proposes utilizing structural power theory expressed in three dimensions; economic, politico-diplomatic and environmental. These analytic tools are utilized to analyze the scope and limitations of Chinese influence in Hungary and Serbia, the two countries where China proved to have largest investments and the closest relations among CEE countries.