Recent Articles

Polluting coal facilities in southwestern Romania have adversely affected the well-being of the local population and the environment. But rather than phase them out, the EU member state is planning to build a new coal-fired plant, drawing on Chinese investment – even as the EU moves toward a zero-coal future. 

Even as China has pledged reduction of carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement, it has actively pursued coal projects in the Balkans in recent years that seem to go against those commitments. 

China’s potentially growing economic influence in the Arctic region has raised concerns amongst Arctic states and stakeholders. What kind of security risks for the Arctic states and peoples could accompany China’s regional engagement?

China is now at the top of the tables when it comes to investment in research and development. But problems like bureaucracy and short-term thinking continue to hold innovation back.

Germans may celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall as a turning point for the country, and an end to repression and division. But in China's state media today, the wall is a symbol of US-China trade divisions. 

As Germany celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dramatic changes brought by the events of 1989, the anniversary will pass quietly in China.

For years, concerns in Brussels and Western European capitals about the security of southeastern Europe have centered on the threat posed by Putin’s Russia. But behind these fears the question of China looms large.

A recent controversy surrounding the Czech-Chinese Center, a program at the top university in the Czech Republic, is the latest in a series of "shenanigans" that have drawn public attention to relations with China, says Martin Hala. 

For decades, the notion of GDP has taken on symbolic significance for the Chinese Communist Party. But the prominence of the measure may be faltering in the face of the country's changing economic and political climate.