In the first event of YCW Europe’s V4 series, the panel — including Viktor Eszterhai (Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade), Jakub Jakóbowski (Centre for Eastern Studies), Ivana Karásková (CHOICE & MapInfluenCE) and Richard Turcsányi (Palacky University Olomouc) — discussed the benefits and pitfalls of the Visegrád Four’s cooperation with China, Beijing’s economic and political presence in the region, the region’s role in EU-China relations, and the significance of the 17+1 Initiative.
About Viktor Eszterhai
Viktor Eszterhai is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Budapest. In the past, he has been Senior Researcher at the Pallas Athene Geopolitical Research Institute, and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Geography, Geoeconomy and Sustainable Development at Corvinus University, Budapest. He holds a PhD from the Modern and Contemporary History Doctoral Program of Eötvös Loránd University; was a visiting senior researcher at Tsinghua University, and a visiting scholar at Fudan University. His main research areas are the cultural characteristics of Chinese foreign policy, the relationship between China and Europe, and non-western schools of International Relations.
About Jakub Jakóbowski
Jakub Jakóbowski is the Coordinator of the Connectivity at Eurasia Project, as well as a Senior Fellow at the China Programme at the Centre for Eastern Studies, a public think-tank based in Warsaw. He specializes in China’s international political economy, CEE-China and EU-China relations. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), and lectures at the University of Warsaw and SGH. Between 2012-2015 he worked as an exports consultant for Polish small and medium-sized enterprises on the markets of Eastern Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
About Ivana Karásková
Ivana Karásková is a China Research Fellow and Project Coordinator at the Association for International Affairs, in Prague, and the founder of MapInfluenCE, and China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE). Ivana focuses on conceptualization of influence, Chinese foreign and security policies, China’s presence in Central and Eastern Europe. She holds a PhD in International Relations from Charles University, where she has been a lecturer in China’s geopolitics and EU-China relations since 2014. Ivana completed research and study stays in China and Taiwan, and between 2009-2010 she was a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in New York. Moreover, she is a Czech member of the China expert pool at the Hybrid CoE in Helsinki and a European China Policy Fellow at MERICS in Berlin.
About Richard Q. Turcsanyi
Richard Q. Turcsanyi is a Key Researcher at Palacky University Olomouc, Assistant Professor at Mendel University in Brno, and Program Director at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS). He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and further degrees in economy and political science. In past, he conducted long-term research stays at the University of Toronto, Peking University, National Chengchi University in Taipei, and the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels. He is an author of “Chinese Assertiveness in the South China Sea” and has published a number of academic articles and opinion pieces on Chinese foreign policy and relations between China and (Central and Eastern) Europe. He is a member of various networks focusing on contemporary China and EU-China relations, including ETNC, CHERN, and CHOICE.
