China-CEE cooperation good for EU

On his way to the 14th ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Spain, during a visit to Slovenia, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi again defended China's cooperation with Central and Eastern European nations, reiterating its goodwill nature and praising it as a beneficial complement to China-EU relations.

But that may not suffice to alleviate the worries Wang and his entourage are set to encounter at the Asia-Europe event in Madrid. It will take patience and persuasion on their part to convince their EU counterparts of the innocent intentions behind the growing Chinese presence in Europe, particularly its eastern parts.

But as Wang pointed out, China-CEE cooperation, or "17+1", which convenes China, 16 CEE countries and Greece, is not divisive in nature, it is an outcome of mutual needs and voluntary partnership. The EU should rest assured that the China-CEE platform is conducive to its well-being as it narrows the development gaps among its own member states.

Thanks in part to the internal unbalanced development levels and the EU's inability to offer development assistance to its less-developed central and eastern members, China and the CEE countries have found precious opportunities in what each side has to offer the other.

The two sides' economic needs are mutually complementary. Their markets have great potential for each other. And their cooperation may open up a significant gateway linking Asia and Europe. Ideological and geopolitical factors aside, this is an invaluable economic thoroughfare that would benefit the entire Eurasian continent.

Unfortunately it is precisely ideological and geopolitical considerations that are creating obstacles for such an otherwise promising partnership. Neutral as it may be from the perspective of the cross-Atlantic alliance, NATO's latest mention of "challenges" from a rising China is read widely as a sign of North American and Western European suspicion, if not distortion, of China's intentions. And for all the clarifications Beijing has offered, Europeans remain divided over what a growing Chinese presence means to them. While some harbor suspicions about the Chinese government's defense and promotion of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, for instance, Beijing is pushing it as a touchstone of mutual trust. National security, in Beijing's eyes, is but a fig leaf for a plot to contain China.

Chinese investments and relationships in the CEE countries and Greece represent its commitment to long-term engagement with them as key parts of the Belt and Road Initiative. Rather than letting ideological differences breed suspicion, the EU should look at the "17+1" cooperation without prejudice. In doing so, it would appreciate that the cooperation is beneficial to the EU as a whole and helps materialize the EU vision and strategy for connecting Europe with Asia.