The New Silk Road rail link is an increasingly strong bond for China-Europe cooperation
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In 2024, many Central and Eastern European countries celebrated 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations with China. Conversation, compromise and cooperation are the correct reading of the underpinnings of the various dimensions of the relations and contacts between China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe over the past 75 years.
In 2012, the first meeting at the level of heads of government of the Central and Eastern European countries and China took place in Warsaw, which officially marked the beginning of the China-CEEC cooperation formula.
In 2013, during official visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, President Xi Jinping launched the Belt and Road Initiative, one of the world’s most ambitious infrastructure initiatives, intended to connect countries with economic corridors. Since then, China has strategically targeted countries from East Asia to Europe, using the Belt and Road infrastructure projects to increase global, regional and bilateral cooperation. In less than a decade, dozens of countries have joined the initiative, collectively representing over one-third of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population. This includes transnational and regional cooperation among countries involved in the BRI, macro-level policy exchanges, intergovernmental cooperation, coordination of communications between countries, trade, and political support for large infrastructure projects.
Since 1990, the percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has fallen by three-fourths. At the heart of this great achievement in human prosperity has been a 20-fold increase in the volume of international trade and deepening cooperation. This economic vision is now under attack and its achievements are at risk.
A series of shocks over the past 15 years — the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis — have created an alternative narrative about globalization. According to this new line of thinking, globalization, instead of strengthening countries economically, exposes them to excessive risk. Economic interdependence is no longer seen as an advantage, it is seen at the heights of world politics as a great disadvantage.
Now we hear: what countries need is not free markets and interdependence, but independence and widespread self-sufficiency among a small group of political and economic allies.
The pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, as well as the misdefining of raw material and technological constraints, have exposed real weaknesses in global trade, causing product shortages and supply bottlenecks that harm both businesses and households. Talk of „separation” has become common. Governments are introducing an increasing number of export and import restrictions, especially on goods considered strategically important, such as semiconductors and critical minerals.
Now, for the economies of Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, the Ukraine crisis, the subsequent sanctions on Russia and tensions in international trade have created difficulties, and increases in transport costs pose new challenges. Statistical data proves the scale and impact on the regional economy of Poland and the region. Since the China-Europe freight train service was launched in 2011, the number of trains from China to Europe on the intermodal Belt and Road have exceeded 100,000, which have transported over 11 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), with goods worth over $420 billion. The development of intermodal rail transport between China and Europe has been an impetus for many logistics investments in countries located along transport routes. Thanks to infrastructure modernization and expansion of transhipment terminals, as well as improvements in customs and administrative procedures, the time needed to complete 10,000 train journeys on the Belt and Road has been reduced from over seven years to just half a year now. This means that the rail route has become a real alternative to sea transport from China to Europe.
Currently, trains run among over 100 cities in 11 Asian countries and 227 cities in 25 European countries. China-Europe rail freight volumes continue their upward trajectory from 2023, recording an 11 percent rebound year-on-year in the first half of 2024. During this period, the New Silk Road rail link transported approximately 1.23 million TEUs in over 11,400 freight trains. The number of trains that ran on railway routes connecting China with Europe in 2024 exceeded 10,000. In 2024, it happened 19 days earlier than in 2023. In 2024, it happened at the beginning of July. From July to September 2024, container trains from China to Europe transported 690,000 metric tons of cargo — 118 percent more than in 2023.
Most of the transport goes to Poland, mainly to the Malaszewicze logistics hub. Poland is also the country that recorded the largest increase in cargo volume on the Belt and Road route. In the third quarter of 2024, trains from China to Poland transported 93,300 TEUs, which means an increase of as much as 221 percent. At the same time, 3,412 TEUs were transported to Germany (an increase of 35.7 percent), 1,178 TEUs to Hungary (an increase of 33.86 percent), and 540 TEUs to the Netherlands.
From January to September 2024, 227,656 TEUs arrived in Poland, 154 percent more than last year, and 21,000 TEUs were transported to Germany (an increase of 120 percent).
The above-mentioned effects of cooperation only in international rail transport show the potential and importance of cooperation between China and EU countries, especially Poland. It is also worth recalling that over 30 percent of Polish imports from China constitute supply imports for the Polish industry. There are hundreds of large companies with Chinese capital operating in Poland and over 3,500 small companies are run by Chinese citizens, and thousands of Polish companies are taking steps to enter the Chinese market. Of course, we should not be satisfied with these numbers, and unfortunately, there has been too little action on the Polish side. Poland should care more about reducing tensions in international relations and expanding good cooperation not only at the level of diplomacy and politics, but also as the consistent work of its administration, business and its organizations.
The Polish business community hopes that during the Polish presidency of the EU, it will be possible to significantly improve EU-China cooperation, create stable conditions for its development and strengthen the positive dialogue between the EU and China.
The author is chairman of Poland-Asia Chamber of Industry and Commerce and former deputy prime minister and minister of Economy of Poland. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.
