Streszczenie
This chapter aims at looking at the role of Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)
in China’s policy toward Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries
in the 21st century, especially since the enlargement of the European Union
(EU) in 2004. During this time, we could observe an increase of Chinese
interest in the region resulting in growing trade, investments and number
of contacts on all levels. China has used a wide array of different instruments
to achieve its goals in the region: from a big political project such as the “16+1
format” to an unprecedented frequency of contacts between Chinese
provinces and their European counterparts (Kaczmarski, Jakóbowski
2015). Despite a visible growth of economic ties, Beijing presented a very
limited will to use investments as a political instrument. Even if Chinese
investments in CEE are booming, they are possibly less politically biased
and more market-driven than those in other developing countries, like
African ones.