Czech Republic considers exiting from European Group of China's investm

Prague / Beijing: The Czech Republic has indicated to withdraw from the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) group of (16+1) set up by China to boost trade and investment with European countries. Jan Lipavsky, the Czech Foreign Minister, said that the promises made by China had not been fulfilled, and the Czech Republic has not benefited in any way. Hence, they are considering leaving as their expectations have not been met. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the government have approved the proposal in this regard. The Chinese media has termed this decision to be politically motivated.

China already has diplomatic, trade and investment cooperation with the European Union. To expand this to Central and Eastern European countries, China established a China-CEE (16 + 1) in 2012. However, China planned to increase its influence on the small European countries by evading the policy and regulations of the European Union. European analysts had also criticized China for attempting to break the European Union block by setting up separate groups.

Ignoring this, China continued its efforts to increase its influence in Central and Eastern European countries. But as the China-CEE (16 + 1) group completes ten years, China’s dominance is beginning to wiggle out. Disagreements between European countries and China are intensifying over issues such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang. Last year, a small country like Lithuania challenged China on the Taiwan issue. The country had knocked China out of the China-CEE group. At the same time, other countries were urged to get out of it.

Since then, tensions between Europe and China over the Russia-Ukraine war have escalated. The European Union has given clear warnings to China about cooperation with Russia. But China has repeatedly denied involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war. This has not gone down well with the European countries, and the resentment against China seems to be increasing. Leading nations such as Germany and France and relatively small countries such as Lithuania and the Czech Republic have begun to take an open stance against China.

The Czech Republic’s signal to withdraw from China-CEE (16 + 1) seems to be part of that. The Czech Republic had earlier openly supported Taiwan and rejected China’s 5G technology. The Czech Republic will have the rotating presidency of the European Union from next month. The Indo-Pacific policy will be its priority during this period. Against this backdrop, the signal to withdraw from China-backed investment groups could be another major blow to China. Analysts have warned that tensions between China and Europe could further escalate.