Fraught with tensions

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Over the past couple of years, the Nordic-Baltic countries have seen their relations with China deteriorate significantly as security-related concerns and sensitive political topics have come to dominate the bilateral agenda. In particular, the two sides have clashed over the pro-democracy protests in Hongkong, Chinese human rights violations in Xinjiang and the Chinese tech giant Huawei’s position in the Nordic-Baltic states. Even so, the Nordic-Baltic countries far from constitute a uniform block with, for instance, Lithuania openly challenging China on its core interests, while Finland and Latvia have taken a more cautious approach.

This DIIS webinar brings together China scholars from Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden to offer their specific perspectives on current relations with China. It addresses a number of important questions to help us understand recent developments: Why have economic opportunities of engagement with China receded into the background, what are the main drivers of the recent downturn, to which degree has China become a national security threat and to what extent will China remain a collaboration partner to the Nordic-Baltic states?

A new DIIS report will also be launched at the webinar: “China as a national security threat: A comparative study of changing threat perceptions in the Baltic Sea region”.

Speakers
Jyrki Kallio, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head of the Asia Program, Latvian Institute of International Affairs
Konstantinas Andrijauskas, Associate Professor, Vilnius University
Viking Bohman, Analyst, Swedish National China Centre
Andreas Bøje Forsby, Researcher, DIIS
Mikkel Runge Olesen, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme
15.00-15.05    Introduction, Mikkel Runge Olesen    
15.05-15.15    Danish-Chinese relations: No longer `Comprehensive Strategic Partners´?, Andreas Bøje Forsby  
15.15-15.25    Finnish-Chinese relations: How to avoid becoming driftwood in the cross-current of superpowers?, Jyrki Kallio   
15.25-15.35    Latvian-Chinese relations: Policy Planners vs Left-over Sectoral Pragmatism, Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova   
15.35-15.45    Lithuanian-Chinese relations, Konstantinas Andrijauskas   
15.45-15.55    Swedish-Chinese relations: China’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy in Sweden, Viking Bohman   
16.00-16.30    Q & A

Practical information
The webinar will be held in English.

Recorded on Thursday 9 December 2021, 15.00-16.30