Initiative aims to connect not divide

With claims being heard in some Western European countries that China's bid to advance the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe is aimed at dividing the European Union, it will clearly require more time for some EU countries to fully appreciate how the initiative serves as an antidote to the increasingly prevailing unilateralism and trade protectionism.

It is true that the 16+1 framework China launched in 2012 did involve the 16 Central and Eastern European countries in the initiative, and that among them 11 are EU members.

But has China's cooperation with some individual EU member countries affected its economic cooperation with the EU as a whole? Has China's developing relations with Central and Eastern European countries politically estranged them from the EU?