China’s New Silk Road and Central and Eastern Europe—A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The ancient Silk Road was created to promote trade between China and Europe; however, at the end of the fifteenth century, the Silk Road and China’s dominant role began to decline, mostly due to the geographical discoveries. At the same time, today’s globalization and the development of rail technologies have once again put the creation of a New Silk Road (NSR) in the crosshairs of China. The aim of this study is twofold: on the one hand, to present the NSR Initiative launched by China and its various important elements. On the other hand, it seeks to map Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), focusing on the 17+1 Mechanism and the Visegrad Group (V4 countries), for the potential impacts of this initiative on these countries. To achieve a wide-ranging overview of the New Silk Road concepts, a comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted. The NSR could benefit most CEE countries and result in more and cheaper products due to the increase in delivery speed and the decrease in delivery time. The initiative’s success depends mainly on the stability and willingness to participate of CEE countries, especially the V4 countries, thus becoming logistics hubs in the region.