China’s Economic Investments In The Western Balkans Aimed At Promoting Its Anti-Western Values

The Kon­rad Ade­nauer Stiftung (KAS), a Ger­man think tank, has pub­lished a report exam­in­ing China’s influ­ence in the West­ern Balka­ns, argu­ing that China’s eco­nom­ic invest­ments in the region are also aimed at pro­mot­ing its anti-West­ern val­ue mod­el. Accord­ing to the KAS report’s exec­u­tive summary:

Octo­ber 2021 The West­ern Balka­ns region is of geostrate­gic impor­tance. Some of the coun­tries are already offi­cial can­di­dates for EU mem­ber­ship and / or NATO mem­bers. How­ev­er, the slowed pace of EU enlarge­ment is caus­ing many soci­eties to stag­nate or the elites to open up to oth­er geopo­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic pol­i­cy options. Chi­na has sig­nif­i­cant­ly inten­si­fied its involve­ment in the region and wants to inte­grate the region into its Silk Road ini­tia­tive. How­ev­er, the long-term Chi­nese strat­e­gy is not only aimed at expand­ing its eco­nom­ic strength, but also at pro­mot­ing its val­ue mod­el in con­trast to the West. Chi­na ben­e­fits from the fact that many of the coun­tries are very open to sup­pos­ed­ly uncon­di­tion­al invest­ments in their own infra­struc­ture or that polit­i­cal sys­tems exist in which lack of trans­paren­cy and sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to cor­rup­tion unfor­tu­nate­ly play a major role. [Trans­lat­ed with Google Translate]

Read the full report here.