We are growing! The international project formerly known as ChinfluenCE (2017-2020) is now expanding to also cover the influence of other authoritarian actors in the four countries of Central Europe – Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
To reflect this change, the project has been rebranded to MapInfluenCE.
You can find all project activities on the new website www.mapinfluence.eu which still contains the previous research in English, Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Slovak. New features will be added soon. MapInfluenCE is designed and run by the Association for International Affairs (AMO), a Prague-based foreign policy think tank and NGO.
While keeping the main focus on the influence of China in the region, MapInfluenCE focuses also on areas and ways in which Chinese presence intersects with those of other external authoritarian regimes, chief among them Russia. The growth of the project reflects the rapidly changing geopolitical environment in the region, which necessitates broadening the scope of research activities.
Since its inception, our team members in four countries have explored Chinese presence in Central Europe through pioneering analyses of the coverage of China in the local media, links of pro-China businessmen and local political elites, discourse of parliamentary parties and individual politicians regarding China as well as many other relevant issues linked to China’s footprint. The original approach of the project set the tone and inspired journalists, think tankers and NGOs both within and outside of the region, who later conducted similar analyses on media image of China and agenda-setting, drawing from the project’s methodology and techniques. The international team has reached wide acclaim – project’s analysts published more than 20 policy and briefing papers in five different languages, authored articles or appeared in numerous local as well as international media including Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, China Digital Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Politico Brussels Influence, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Diplomat, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Le Temps, Radio Free Europe, etc.
We would like to thank you for your support throughout these years and we hope you will stay with us in the new exciting period of our project!
We are determined to start MapInfluenCE on a high note. In just a few weeks, we will publish a large-scale comparative analysis of Chinese public diplomacy in Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, analyzing the patterns of Chinese use of “sticks” and “carrots” to influence its standing in the Central European region. Stay tuned!
