DISCOVERING AND DEFINING CHINA IN CEE

COUNTRIES SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY

IRMANTAS PEČIŪRA

MYKOLAS ROMERIS UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL SCIENCES

16+1 HIGH-LEVEL ACADEMIC FORUM BUDAPEST

2017

BACKGROUND OF ANALYSIS

What is country image?

“a complete set of descriptive, inferential and informational

beliefs about that given country”

Who is forming it?

politicians, government, media, researchers

What is a role of

scientificcommunity?

Construction (active) or adoption and reflection (passive)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND LIMITATIONS

Analysis is based on Clarivate Analytics Web of

Science data of 16 CEE countries

Analysis is mostly focused on fields of social sciences

and humanities

Analysis is concentrating to two main periods (4 years before and after China’s Belt and Road initiative

announcement): I) 2009-12 and II) 2014-16(17)

Rising 4 hypothesis;

1. HYPOTHESIS

In CEE countries a total number of publications

related to China ‘as a research object’ has dramatically

increased after 2012 when China introduced its Belt and

Road initiative

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

Total publications in CEE countries related to China by

time periods

2009-12 2013-16 2017

25

60

15 15

74

1134

60

621

69

10 19

73

8

4849

324

64

12 13

72

1525

50

25 24

58

18 18

64

18 9

81

1030

60

10

100

5050 5050 5050

2. HYPOTHESIS

In CEE countries the economical narrative

overshadows other important topics (politics, culture and

etc.) regarding China

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130 Total publications in CEE countries by topics (2013-17)

Economics Politics Environment Culture

Polan

d

Czec

h

Repu

blic

Hung

ary

Roma

nia

Serbi

a

Slova

kia

Eston

ia

Slove

nia

Croat

ia

Lithu

ania

Latvi

a

Mace

donia

Mont

enegr

o

Bosni

a and

Herez

egovi

na

Not relevant to topics -56 -21 -21 -19 -15 -11 -11 -8 -6 -2 -1 -1 0 0

-60

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

0

3. HYPOTHESIS

In CEE countries researchers are concentrating to China

‘outside’ CEE region problematic

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Macedonia

Czech Republic

Montenegro

Romania

Estonia

Slovakia

Poland

Hungary

Latvia

Croatia

Slovenia

Serbia

Lithuania

Bosnia and

Herezegovina

Share of publications related to CEE and China

Related to CEE Not related to CEE

4. HYPOTHESIS

The collaboration between CEE countries researchers

regarding China is low

Slo

vaki

a

Cro

atia

Cze

ch R

epu

blic

Hu

nga

ry

Slo

ven

ia

Ro

man

ia

Serb

ia

Lith

uan

ia

Po

lan

d

Bu

lgar

ia

Esto

nia

Latv

ia

Bo

snia

an

d H

erze

govi

na

Alb

ania

Mac

ed

on

ia

Mo

nte

ne

gro

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Collaborations between 16+1 countries

Slovakia

Croatia

Czech Republic

Hungary

Slovenia

Romania

Serbia

Lithuania

Poland

Bulgaria

Estonia

Latvia

Bosnia andHerzegovinaAlbania

Macedonia

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

16+1 countries collaborations between other countries

and their groups

Poland

Czech Republic

Hungary

Estonia

Croatia

Serbia

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Lithuania

Bulgaria

Latvia

Albania

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (I)

1. A growing of research output generated in CEE countries shows that

this region is increasingly getting involved into the wide discourse of

China’s Belt and Road strategy and ‘China’ in general;

However:

2. Analysis of 2013-16(17) period publications showed that an amount

of research publications directly related to 16+1 platform

problematic is extremely low in every CEE country;

3. Despite a fact that economical dimension is very important in CEE-

China relations, researchers concentration only on this topic

possibly overshadows an opportunity to find a ‘share values’ which

can become a main pillar of building trust and foster a deeper

cooperation;

4. Because a major part of publications analyzing China ‘outside’ CEE

countries problematic it is very hard to establish a positive image of

China in the region. At the global level (‘outside’) most publications

puts China into context of competition and conflict (relations

between superpowers, changing world order, economic competition,

regional conflicts);

5. It is very hard to talk about such a thing as CEE countries ‘Scientific

Community’. The collaboration level between CEE countries

researchers is very low and mostly focused on bilateral relations and

concentrated around few leading countries;

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (II)