China's Belt and Road Initiative: Impact and Perceptions in Europe

When China started promoting its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, Europe was always going to be a key destination for both the "Belt" and the "Maritime Road" with an open goal of targeting the European consumer market. While Beijing has tried to promote its initiative across Europe, the BRI concept remains unclear to a lot of Europeans. In addition, it has been hard to differentiate between Chinese foreign direct investments (with a total amount of EUR 17.3 billion in 2018, mainly in the UK, Germany and France) and BRI-related projects, which have been scarce in the European Union - although the situation is quite different in the Balkans just outside the EU. Meanwhile, the EU has launched its own connectivity strategy, which makes Chinese objectives of offering to build infrastructures to European countries ever more challenging. Join us for a discussion with Philippe Le Corre, Research Associate, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Tony Saich, Ash Center Director, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, will moderate. Lunch will be served. This event is open to the public and RSVPs are not required. Seats are first come, first served.