China-Europe partnership benefits all
China, Russia will question US global leadership
From a geostrategic point of view, China regards the CEE countries as an important linking point for the Belt and Road corridors to the larger Western European markets. Although the 16+1 framework is primarily designed as an economic project, its realization raises many political and security issues, because 11 of the CEE countries are members of the European Union and 13 are part of NATO, and they have different experiences of geopolitics and history.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, relations between China and the CEE countries have been significantly influenced by the European Union, Russia and the US. China established diplomatic relations with the Baltic states－Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania－in 1991.
It remains unclear whether Russia is ready to guarantee the use of its railroads for Chinese companies that would allow the Baltic states, which harbor a hostile attitude toward Russia, to earn added value.
Despite the aim being to create a transport corridor from China via Russia to Europe, and making the cargo pass through the Baltic states, political factors have already made economic relations between the Baltic states and Russia difficult and in the longer run may diminish the role of the Baltic states' ports to a minimum in the Europe-Asia cargo chain.
The old European Union countries are opposed to the activities of China in the CEE countries. At a conference of European diplomats in Paris at the end of August 2017, Sigmar Gabriel, then German foreign minister, demanded that China follow a "One Europe" policy, just as European countries follow the "One China" policy.
For the US, the CEE countries including the Baltic states represent a geo-strategic region with great military importance which allows Washington to deter possible Russian expansion by putting continuous political and military pressure on Moscow and adding to the US forces in the region.
In the long run, however, China's widening global trade network and Russia's military revitalization will inevitably question the US' global leadership.
