Insights in Polarization

The China We Don't Actually Know: Closing the Evidence Gap on China in Southeast Europe

Ask ten people in Southeast Europe what Chinese influence in the region actually looks like, and the answers will cluster at two extremes. For some, China is a strategic and security threat, buying loyalty through debt, elite capture and infrastructure. For others, it is a product of Western scaremongering, a story that inflates a marginal and beneficial presence into a geopolitical drama. Both pictures are confidently drawn, but neither is complete or particularly reliable. The gap between...

• Polarization, Expertise, Strategy

China’s Image in Serbia: A Divided Public Behind a Strategic Partnership

PAID CONTENT

From the outside, Serbia appears to be moving closer to China. President Aleksandar Vučić’s recent visit to Beijing, his third in less than three years, reinforced the impression of a deepening strategic partnership. China’s growing economic footprint, political visibility, and public diplomacy efforts all suggest a country expanding its influence in the Western Balkans. Yet public opinion tells a more nuanced story. A new nationwide survey of over 1,700 respondents - originally collected by...

• Serbia, Public opinion, Polarization