Is Europe Prepared to Deal with the China Challenge?

A ChinaFile Conversation

By Mikko Huotari, Jan Weidenfeld & more on June 24, 2016

Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a grand tour of the western end of the “New Silk Road,” in visits to Serbia and Poland this week before he returns to Beijing via Uzbekistan, a more eastern outpost on China’s expanding 21st Century trade route. Xi was present in Belgrade and Warsaw at the signing of a series of agreements in areas ranging from trade, education, finance, technology, and civil aviation as China looks to bolster its presence in central and eastern Europe.

Jan Weidenfeld

on June 24, 2016

Jan Weidenfeld is Head of Research of the European China Policy Unit at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). He works on European-China relations, transatlantic China policy, and cyber diplomacy. Prior to joining MERICS, Weidenfeld was an analyst with the RAND Corporation, where he led a wide range of European and transatlantic foreign and security policy research efforts for E.U. institutions, agencies, and member states. Over the course of his career, he served in policy-making and research positions with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE, the E.U. Delegation to the International Organisations in Vienna, the European Union Institute for Security Studies, and the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Weidenfeld holds an M.Phil. degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, where he was also a Gates Scholar.