Richard Turcsanyi

Palacký University Olomouc · Department of Asian Studies

The United States has long represented one of Canada's primary international allies. This partnership has remained strong despite turbulent times in the relationship, such as the one brought forth by the Trump presidency. Our article seeks to understand the sources of such continuity through the lens of continentalism. While historical accounts of...

This article investigates whether populism affects the foreign policy of European Union (EU) member states towards China and, if so, through what mechanisms. In order to answer this question, we examine the cases of Italy and Czechia, both of which went through turbulent relations with China in the recent decade whilst also experiencing several gov...

To evaluate the European Union’s (EU) policy framework towards China, this study analyses the varied facets of bilateral relations and the EU’s approach towards China, including its policy of de-risking, together with issues relating to China’s domestic politics and foreign policy. It highlights the need for the EU to adopt a coherent vision and a...

This paper addresses China’s challenges to the current international order. We assess the present stage of competition between the West and China for the “hearts and minds” of people worldwide and provide explanations for why certain audiences find China favourable and want to align with it over the West. To do so, we consult unique new data produc...

Contemporary China: A New Superpower? is a unique textbook introducing the complexity and diversity of China’s society, politics, economics, and international affairs, and the multiple ways in which their dynamics corroborate to simultaneously construct and challenge perceptions of China. Structured thematically in three sections – History, Societ...

Russian – and increasingly also Chinese – information operations have in recent years been at the forefront of the threats assessment in NATO countries. The concerns about China’s power and its challenge to the existing Western-led international order, together with its attempts to increase its information influence, make the Chinese efforts in the...

China has become a hotly debated political topic in Europe and has also attracted significant public attention. However, despite historical relations between Portugal and China and the significant economic investment China has made in Portugal in recent years, no study has been carried out concerning Portuguese public opinion on China. Following up...

Overall, China is seen predominantly negatively, with the exceptions of Greece, Romania, and Latvia. Russia is perceived even more negatively than China, although public sentiments are less negative in Greece and Turkey. On the other hand, the US and the EU are seen predominantly positively in all 15 surveyed countries. As a result, although the Ru...

How did Britons view China in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? This paper presents new, detailed evidence of the negative and worsening perceptions of China in the UK across three domains: public opinion (based on survey data collected in autumn 2020), political elites in parliament, and the media. The worsening of perceptions of China...

“Chinese influence” has become a hot topic among politicians, media, and pundits. Academic studies dealing with the subject, however, generally take a much more cautious position. This paper suggests an innovative approach of studying political influence using data from the UN General Assembly voting and speech records. Utilizing the latest advance...

This report is a result of a large-scale online survey1 of public opinion in Mainland China, conducted between 9-23 March 2022,3 with a research sample (N=3039) representative of the Chinese population with respect to gender, age (18-65 years), and country region. This survey is part of a broader research project ‘Sinophone Borderlands – Interactio...

During the past decade, China has rapidly emerged as a major player in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Will it divide Europe? Might these formerly communist countries align themselves again with a communist superpower to their east? Or does their past experience of Russia and communism generate suspicions of China? This article explores what publ...

The prospect of accession of the Western Balkans into the EU has been declining, with Brussels unwilling to accept new members, and the Western Balkan region becoming indifferent towards adopting EU-imposed norms. Although this process has been extensively studied, the academic literature has largely omitted the roles of external actors. This artic...

China is generally considered one of the greatest challenges facing NATO member states in the 21st century. Much attention has been paid to China’s decades-long meteoric economic rise which has also fueled a massive military build-up. During the 2010s, China became increasingly assertive in its geopolitical neighbourhood, raising alarms in numerous...

The paper presents an original corpus of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conferences. The dataset is a unique source of information on official positions and diplomatic narratives of China mapping almost two decades of its foreign policy discourse. The corpus contains almost 23,000 question – answer dyads from 2002 to 2020 ready to be...

Rapid economic growth of China over the previous four decades has made it one of the key global players. But economic dealings with China always carry political and strategic implications. China continues to be ruled by a single-party regime of the Communist Party and, in fact, is growing more authoritarian at home and abroad in recent years. We id...

The Chinese government’s cover-up of the origins of the new coronavirus, and its more openly prideful and aggressive foreign and human rights policies, triggered a dramatic deterioration of foreign views of China in 2020. That year also witnessed a significant increase in anti-Chinese/Asian prejudice around the world. Could the former have shaped t...

The Covid-19 pandemic has been discussed as strengthening nationalist forces around the world, as opposed to the forces of globalization. While this may be the case in some countries, in others we can observe an increasing political polarization between the "globalists" and "nationalists" rather than a unification against an "outside enemy". The pa...

The extensive unique public opinion survey, conducted as part of the Sinophone Borderlands project in ten EU countries, shows solid common ground among the general public in terms of negative (and worsening) perceptions of China, while at the same time preferring EU-China cooperation on global issues. This provides a positive starting point for a u...

The article aims to contribute to our understanding of China’s soft power in Europe and the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in this regard. We conduct analyses of two leading newspapers in the United Kingdom, in Spain, and in Poland to discover how the BRI was framed there in the period from mid-2013 to mid-2017. The empirical results...

This report is a result of a wide-scale study of public opinion in 13 European countries on China conducted in September and October 2020, on a research sample (n = 19 673) representative with respect to gender, age, level of education, country region, and settlement density.

Two-thirds of Swedes hold negative views of China while close to 80 percent distrust the country. These are the results of the comprehensive European public opinion survey that is presented in this report. Of the 13 European countries included in the survey, China’s public image is the most negative in Sweden. Negative public opinion of China in Sw...

This report is a result of a wide-scale study of public opinion on China in 13 European countries, conducted in September and October 2020, on the research sample representative with respect to gender, age, level of education, country region, and settlement density. Here, we focus on the Slovak portion of the polling, building on the previously pub...

This report is a result of a wide-scale study of public opinion on China in 13 European countries, conducted in September and October 2020, on the research sample representative with respect to gender, age, level of education, country region, and settlement density. Here, we focus on the French portion of the polling, building on the previously pub...

China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have been engaged recently in dynamic diplomatic exchanges under the umbrella of 16+1 platform and the Belt and Road Initiative. The article offers an explanation of why the massive Chinese diplomatic effort did not lead to an improved image of China in the CEE region. We adopt the approach...

This report, which brings together experts from across the continent, is a collaborative effort of the 21 research institutes that make up the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC), of which Ifri is a founding member. As explained by John Seaman, editor of the report and Research Fellow in Ifri’s Center for Asian Studies, the Covid-19 crisis...

This report, which brings together experts from across the continent, is a collaborative effort of the 21 research institutes that make up the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC), of which Ifri is a founding member. As explained by John Seaman, editor of the report and Research Fellow in Ifri’s Center for Asian Studies, the Covid-19 crisis...

This CEIAS policy paper aims to continue the ongoing discussions about China and its political and economic significance for Europe. It specifically analyzes both history and the future of the relations between Slovakia and China while attempting to interpret the Chinese understanding of its foreign policy towards this part of the world. The topic...

For two decades after 1989, the Czech Republic has been one of the most energetic campaigners of human rights internationally and in particular concerning China. Political reshuffling in 2012-2013, however, led to a U-turn in foreign policy on China and suddenly the Czech Republic counted as one of the most pro-China countries regionally. A few yea...

The article answers how growing intensity of China-V4 relations in the period of 2010–2017 impacted the media discourse of China in Central Europe. While diplomatically speaking China and the Visegrad countries reached perhaps the most positive and intensive relations ever, the top-down impact on people’s perceptions is less clear. Media play an im...

This policy paper by CEIAS researchers aims to explore the possibilities of the multilateral approach towards China within the V4 (V4+China). The first chapter presents an overview of the trade and investment relationship between the V4 countries and China. In the second chapter, we discuss the form and achievements of the V4+Japan and V4+South Kor...

There is little doubt that China is becoming a major challenge for NATO countries. However, to fully appreciate the various dimensions of this challenge requires accounting not only for China’s military capacity, but also for its economic strength, structural circumstances, and soft power. Eventually what would truly address the broad nature of Chi...

The goal of this paper is to present an explanation of why the Muslim governments largely abstained from even bringing up the Uyghur case with China, while the Rohingya issue provoked official condemnations by the governments in many Muslim countries. Although economic factors are most often consulted internationally, this article puts forward poli...

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) had few historical opportunities to interact with China, but with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the 16+1 platform, that changed dramatically in recent years. The article discusses recent development in the China-CEE relations with the aim of explaining why the CEE countries became excited about China initia...

This publication deals with the different kinds of and approaches to security, being a reference study not only for students of Security Studies. It presents the reader with a combination of theoretical and practical insights into security, particularly in the Eastern European neighbourhood. The goal of this book is to offer a comprehensive text w...

This publication is an attempt to deconstruct conceptual and policy shifts currently occuring in the international security environment. The main analytical departure point was to study strategic adaptations triggered after 2014, with the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. It offers an overview of the security...

The South China Sea (SCS) has become one of the most problematic spots of international politics, and it has been mentioned as a possible trigger to a large-scale world conflict, the critical tipping point in the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region, and the place where global economy meets geopolitics. This diagnosis is the direct result of the...

Power is defined in this book as the ability to achieve and/or sustain a desired goal. It is seen as an issue-specific ability, and it should not be mistaken for sources of power, exercise of power, or influence. Assessing the power of an actor by looking at its sources of power and outcomes is the best available method for approximations of the ac...

The notion of an ‘assertive’ China has been widely discussed, yet there is no consensus about what comprises the assertive behaviour of China and why China (allegedly) started to behave assertively. Some claim that the idea of China’s assertiveness was exaggerated, although most agree that China has become more assertive in the disputed maritime re...

China’s institutional position in the regional and global international system is stable and relatively positive. China was relatively successful in managing international institutions to get the most from them in terms of stabilizing the international environment while not getting entangled in obligations which would go against its interests. But...

Based on the power analysis conducted in the previous two chapters, it will be argued here that the main hypothesis does not fully explain the Chinese assertiveness. Moreover, it is shown that although China’s perception of its power (in a twist of the main hypothesis) increased somewhat immediately in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the increase...

The primary goal of the presented book has been to answer the question of what has driven the Chinese assertive policies in the South China Sea. Throughout the text, the main focus has been put on the dominant ‘power shift’ theory. Producing relevant answers required a set of steps—to establish the theoretical basis with regard to the assertive Chi...

Sources of power at the state level are seen as of primary importance when assessing the power of a state, as it is here where the state really acts. Militarily, China is the most powerful actor among the direct claimants in the SCS dispute, and the gap between China and the rest is further increasing. The other regional countries do, however, chal...

This book offers an assessment of China’s assertive foreign policy behavior with a special focus on Chinese policies in the South China Sea (SCS). By providing a detailed account of the assertive events in the SCS and by analyzing power dynamics in the region, it identifies the driving forces behind China’s assertive foreign policy. Considering Chi...

The paper seeks to enrich the discussion of China’s power by critically engaging with existing literature on the topic, presenting a conceptual analysis of power, and suggesting a framework for future research. Firstly, it is shown that only a few scholarly publications approach China’s power in a more comprehensive and conceptually rigorous way, a...

Policy paper Richarda Q. Turcsányiho a Mateja Šimalčíka sa zaoberá čínsko-slovenskými vzťahmi a kvalitatívnym spôsobom skúma čínske pôsobenie na Slovensku. Na základe rozhovorov a dotazníkov s dôležitými slovenskými osobnosťami venujúcimi sa Číne, diskusiách na verejných a uzavretých debatách, kvalitatívnej analýzy vybraných textov a analýzy dlhodo...

This article builds on Europe-wide knowledge of EU-China energy investment relations and discusses the cases of three Central European countries’ attitudes towards Chinese energy investments. It focuses on how Chinese investments are perceived compared to investments from other countries, and how the energy sector is perceived compared to other sec...

This chapter analytically connects theoretical works on power in international politics with the conflict development in the South China Sea (SCS) from the Chinese perspective. Power will be defined as a capability of an actor to achieve and/or sustain a desired situation and it will be understood as a fluid and issue-specific ability. Due to this...

The thesis deals with the Chinese assertive foreign policy identified since the period of 2009-2010. The primary focus of the text is the ‘power shift’ theory, which suggests that China started to act assertively due to changed distribution of power. It is argued that although noteworthy research material has been produced on China’s power, our gen...

This book employs various theories of contemporary security studies to explore some of the most important and most common security issues in Central Europe at this time. Individual chapters of the book adhere mainly to European branches of critical and constructivist security studies, through which they look at some of the salient topics of Central...

The paper presents an application of the concept of strategic culture as a possible way to analyse the foreign policy of a state by stressing its uniqueness and beliefs in contrast to commonality and rationality. The goal is to find out whether the strategic culture approach is a useful method to understand the foreign policy of the People’s Republ...

In the past, it was assessed that the global fi nancial crisis of 2007-2008 has contributed to a shift in power distribution in the region with China accelerating its catching up with the US and overtaking Japan as the world’s second largest economy in 2010 (Bloomberg 2010). The question now should be what impact the Ukrainian crisis poses in this...

Kissinger, H. (2011): On China, New York: Penguin Books, 608 pages.