The aim of the diploma thesis is the comparison of maritime and rail freight transport between Asia and Europe. The thesis focuses on characteristic of rail transport as an alternative mode of transport and identification of possibilities, how to increase its competitiveness towards to maritime transport. First part of the thesis analyses current situation in maritime and rail transport and focuses on their specifics and future potential. The practical part deals with the change of fictitious company´s logistics system. Maritime and rail transport are compared in terms of risks, costs and shipping time. The last part of thesis deals with possibilities of increasing competitiveness of rail transport in the future.

This paper attempts to explore China's direct investment in Central Europe under the OBOR initiative. China's economic cooperation in Central Europe is short and the total amount is small. First, this paper analyzes the current situation of Chinese investment including scales, industrial structure, investment entities. Second, through data integration, this paper analyzes the competitive advantage of China's investment in Central Europe. Finally, this paper explores the motives of Chinese investment through the panel data model. The results show that the market size, technology level, resources and other factors of the Central European countries can attract Chinese investment. At the same time, the local environment, economic stability and other factors do not affect China's investment in infrastructure construction. China has laid the foundation for its economic and trade cooperation with Central Europe and is also a strategic choice between China and the United States. Keywords CE-China investment, competitive advantage, OBOR，economic cooperation，motivation of investment Author's e-mail feelingtime1995@163.com Supervisor's e-mail vladimir.benacek@fsv.cuni.cz

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Power as a concept has a long history of being debated in regards to foreign policy, whereforeign aid as a tool can create asymmetrical power dynamics between donor and recipient.Traditional donors' own national interests have frequently been reduced to security oreconomic motives. China, an independent and emerging donor, is thought to be among themajor donors of foreign aid today. With the growing Belt and Road Initiative, China's globaleconomic ambition is increasing. The general theme of this study is power in relation toforeign aid. The aim is to examine donor motives and how foreign aid can transitioneconomic power to political influence in accordance with Joseph Nye’s theory of power. Inaddition, could China's aid-project be regarded as a “smart power”-strategy? This was doneby examining China’s whitebook on development cooperation through a motive analysis. Inaddition, a method of process-tracing on the case of Chinese aid to Cambodia wasimplemented to examine how China’s foreign aid can manifest as a means of power.Cambodia is a top receiver of Chinese aid, and therefore interesting to explore. The resultsshowed that China’s donor motives can be summarised as security, global development andambition, cooperation, commercial and diplomatic interests. Furthermore, evidence was foundthat Chinese foreign aid can be considered a means of power in Cambodia. Largely becauseof an asymmetrical bilateral relationship as well as Cambodia’s weak state capacity.

Dans un contexte de déploiement des nouvelles routes de la soie, la ville portuaire et balnéaire de Sihanoukville au Cambodge est ciblée par des investissements chinois importants. Ces investissements s’accompagnent par la présence de multiples acteurs chinois – investisseurs, commerçants, ouvriers, touristes – qui produisent un nouvel urbain à Sihanoukville. Ainsi, de nombreux casinos se développent aux côtés de zones économiques spéciales, d’hôtels, de quartiers fermés et de commerces variés. La ville portuaire apparaît comme un front pionnier où les ressources touristiques, commerciales, industrielles et stratégiques doivent être exploitées et où les acteurs chinois jouissent d’une marge de manoeuvre conséquente. Ceci est possible car les élites cambodgiennes, autorités et propriétaires terriens en tête, mettent en place un cadre économique et politique favorable pour attirer les investissements chinois et ainsi profiter du développement de la ville. La nouvelle production urbaine de Sihanoukville limite l’accès aux ressources à certaines populations, ce qui mène à des dynamiques de fragmentation urbaine. Par-delà l’idée d’une opposition entre riches investisseurs chinois et habitants cambodgiens défavorisés, la récente production urbaine de Sihanoukville met plutôt en lumière des clivages entre ceux qui ont accès aux ressources et ceux qui n’y ont pas accès. Loin de l’image officielle mise de l’avant par Pékin concernant les nouvelles routes de la soie, la présence chinoise à Sihanoukville conduit à une production urbaine fragmentée. / In a context of deployment of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, is targeted by massive Chinese investments. Those investments come with the arrival of many Chinese stakeholders – investors, sellers, workers, tourists – who produce a new urbanization in Sihanoukville. Many casinos are being developed in the city, alongside special economic zones, hotels, gated communities, and various other businesses. The city seems to be a frontier where touristic, commercial, industrial, and strategic resources must be exploited, and where the Chinese stakeholders enjoy a certain autonomy. Based on neoliberal logics, Cambodian elites, authorities, and landowners above all, build a favorable economic and political environment to attract Chinese investments and take advantage of the situation. The new urbanization produced in Sihanoukville limits the access to the resources to certain populations, which leads to urban fragmentation. Beyond the idea of an opposition between rich Chinese investors and disadvantaged Cambodian inhabitants, the new Sihanoukville highlights divisions between those who have access to the resources and those who have not. Far from BRI’s official image putting forward by Beijing, the Chinese presence in Sihanoukville comes with a fragmented urban production.

By looking at the reactions of Russian actors regarding the development of the Belt and Road Initiative of the People’s Republic of China in Central and Eastern Europe, this dissertation presents new theoretical and empirical findings that can be used extensively in the fields of Area and Global Studies, as well as practical policymaking. In this context, the Russian Federation’s foreign policy in the region is understood as cumulative activity and strategy developed by the government of Russia regarding the relationship with other countries that are being impacted by multiple internal and external factors. In order to understand a complex relationship between Russian, Chinese, and Central-Eastern European actors, this study employs uniquely created methods focusing on analyzing the reactions of the relevant Russian policymakers, as well as literature, documents, and statistical data. The reactions are also collected via extensive reflection of interviews and primary source material. In this framework, the areas of Russian interests directly related to and operationalized in Central-Eastern Europe are identified, and those affected by the Belt and Road Initiative the most are researched. The study’s results highlight the many discourses and contradictions when contrasting portrayal and perceptions against statistical data. Since none of these areas were analyzed under these circumstances before, many characterizations about the nature of the Initiative, perception of the actors’ behavior, understanding of the positioning of Russia within contemporary geopolitical realities, and many other aspects have been broadened. That leads to a better comprehension of the mechanisms and networks between the companies and political actors based in the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, and Central-Eastern Europe, the effects of their interdependencies and relationship, and general international relations. This research demonstrated a tension of interests within the Russian expert community when assigning securitization to the Belt and Road Initiative sections that affect Russia and East-Central Europe. They are recognized as intertwined with internal politics, economics, geopolitical competitiveness, and international strategy and are thus appropriately employed when reacting to and debating them.

This thesis contributes to the literature on strategic narratives by investigating how China navigates tensions between its projected identities in Belt and Road Initiative narratives relatingto Italy, the United Kingdom, and India aimed at domestic and international audiences. Usinga modified version of Colley’s (2019) method of narrative analysis, the thesis traces how Chinese state identity is emplotted in narratives aimed at domestic and international audiences, respectively. It proceeds to discuss how tension can arise from the distinct choices of inclusionand omission of events as a result of the differing aims and contexts of the two categories of narratives. Finally, it evaluates how the emplotment mechanisms of omission/silencing, linking, sharpening, clarifying, and flattening can be used to ease these tensions through selective deemphasising of narrative elements.

[pt] A China estabeleceu as bases para sua ascensão meteórica na década de 1970, porém foi durante os anos 1990 e particularmente 2000 que ela chamou a atenção do mundo. Atualmente, o país tem uma posição extremamente relevante nas relações internacionais, e o crescente interesse nele é inevitável, especialmente em seu desenvolvimento e em suas iniciativas de cooperação internacional. Esta dissertação objetiva verificar a ascensão recente da China à categoria de potência global e comparar a abordagem ocidental e tradicional de cooperação internacional e a política externa chinesa relacionada a essa agenda, de forma a discutir sobre a estratégia da China de Xi Jinping no campo da cooperação internacional e sobre como o país asiático poderá modificar sua operação. Nesse sentido, primeiramente, ela analisará brevemente as reformas econômicas da China e sua trajetória desenvolvimentista, bem como recentes transformações políticas, econômicas e diplomáticas. Posteriormente, examinará similaridades e diferenças entre a cooperação internacional ocidental e chinesa. Finalmente, inspecionará as mudanças de conjuntura da cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento, baseando-se na retórica e na prática chinesas e na natureza experimental de suas iniciativas, como Um Cinturão, Uma Rota, que, se bem-sucedida, pode favorecer a China na arena global. / [en] China provided the bases for its meteoric rise in the 1970s, but it was during the 1990s and particularly the 2000s that it really called the world s attention. Now, the country holds an extremely relevant place in international relations, and the growing interest in it is inevitable, especially in its development and in its international cooperation initiatives. This dissertation aims to check China s recent rise as a global power and to compare Western traditional approach to international cooperation and Chinese foreign policy related to this agenda in order to discuss China s strategy during Xi Jinping s presidency in the field of development cooperation and how the Asian country may change its operation. In this regard, firstly, it will briefly analyse China s economic reforms and developmental trajectory, as well as more recent political, economic and diplomatic transformations. Afterwards, it will examine Western and Chinese similarities and differences regarding international cooperation. Finally, it will inspect the changing landscape of international development cooperation, based on China s rhetoric and practice and on the experimental nature of its initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, which, if successful, might favour China in the global stage.

以絲綢之路作為文明接觸的和平場域為概念，探討中國正在推動「一帶一路」─以連結中歐為終極目標的道路、基礎設施、投資、政策互聯及人民交流網路─的全新重大外交體系。針對當前國際地緣政治的環境，中歐領導人近期確實強調了布魯塞爾與北京關係的重要性。儘管如此，很多中歐關係的專家也指出這種夥伴關係，還沒有達到雙方所預期的那樣快速及深刻。 本文的第一個研究問題「進一步發展中歐關係的障礙是什麼，以及如何克服這些障礙？」，便是基於對此國際情勢的考量。透過建構主義理論，本文對深化中歐關係的真正障礙進行討論，認為這些障礙來自於中歐人民身份、價值觀與文化的差異，並提出促進中歐人民之間的文化交流來加強中歐關係的可行方案。因此，本文提出第二個研究問題，「一帶一路在中歐文化關係中扮演什麼角色？」，對前項結論接續探討，發現由於一帶一路為中歐雙方提供了文化專案及人際交流合作的動機和框架，因此這一政策對中歐關係具有正面影響的潛質。 本文的最後兩個研究問題「一帶一路將帶給歐洲怎樣的風險與利益？」與「歐盟應如何應對一帶一路？」是相互關聯的。通過對一帶一路將帶來的風險與利益的分析，筆者對中歐雙方如何更有效地推進一帶一路提出了一些政策建議，其中重點分析了歐盟領導人如何與中方開展合作，並認為歐盟必須回應中國的倡議，與之合作，確保中歐雙方實現共贏、對國際規範的遵守、以及幫助中國保持一帶一路所經之地的穩定。 / By recalling the idea of the Silk Road as a place of peaceful encounter of civilizations, China is promoting its new, major diplomatic outreach system called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a network of roads, infrastructures, investments, policy connections and people to people exchanges with the final objective of connecting the PRC to Europe. Indeed, in view of the current international geopolitical circumstances, the Chinese and European leaders are recently emphasizing the importance of the Brussels-Beijing relationships. Nonetheless, many experts complain that this partnership has not yet developed as fast and deeply as the two sides originally hoped. This leads to the first research question addressed in the thesis:"which are the obstacles to a deeper EU-China partnership and how to overcome them and improve the overall relations?". By borrowing the constructivist theories, this thesis argues that the real obstacle to deepening the China-EU partnership are the differences in identities, values and culture, and that the improvement of the people to people and cultural interactions will enhance the general bilateral relations. Consequently, the second research question is "which role does BRI play in the China-EU cultural relations?". BRI has the potential to have a positive impact on their relations by providing a new framework and incentives for the collaboration on cultural projects and people to people interactions. The last two research questions are related to each other: "what are the risks and benefits that BRI will bring to the EU?" and "how should the European Union respond to BRI?". By analyzing the risks and benefits that will derive from the implementation of BRI, the author provides some policy suggestions to both sides on how to efficiently implement BRI, and especially to EU leaders on how to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts: the EU should definitely cooperate in the Chinese initiative, to ensure a win-win outcome for all, to guarantee the respect of the international norms and to help the PRC maintain the stability in the areas crossed by the BRI network.

新疆塔吉克族的婚禮，目前已是聯合國非物質文化遺產之一。塔吉克族的婚禮方式傳統特殊，有其特定的結婚季節，是塔吉克人引以為傲的慶典。隨著中國大陸「一帶一路」的全球經濟發展策略，塔吉克族的故鄉塔什庫爾干，因為位於一帶一路通往中亞與南亞的重要樞紐上，成為了經濟特區，帶動經濟飛快地發展，卻也造成維護傳統文化上的巨大衝擊。許多塔吉克族的傳統房屋被迫拆除，新建地現代樓房因為室內空間改變，而影響了塔吉克族的婚禮儀式。此外，隨著現代化的影響，許多傳統的禮俗慢慢地流失，塔吉克族特有的樂器鷹笛和羊皮鼓，已漸漸地被電子琴所取代。而騎馬迎娶新娘的儀式，也大多被汽車所取代。因此，此創作計畫透過三個多月的紀錄，將塔吉克婚禮的過程紀實攝影，最終展覽以攝影敘事的方式，結合動態影像與塔吉克鷹舞的互動體驗，以及問卷回饋的形式，反映社會大眾對於不同文化變遷的意見，也希望能特過此創作，對於塔吉克族文化的變遷與流失，做最後的紀錄與保存。 / The Xinjiang Tajik wedding is one of the United Nations Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Tajik wedding is particular, traditional which is only hold in wedding season. The Tajik is proud of their wedding ceremony. Via the One Belt One Road global economic strategy in mainland China, which leads to the dramatically change in Tashkurgan, the hometown of the Tajik. The location of Tashkurgan is in the hub of Central Asia and South Asia. The perfect location make Tashkurgan become the Fourth Special Economic Zone in China. Being the Special Economic Zone brought to the increasing developing, on the other hand, which harmed to the cultural maintenance as well. Most of the traditional Tajik houses were demolished. The China government built the modern house to replace the original tradition one. The change of the house which also changed the indoor space leading to the change to the Tajik wedding ceremony. Otherwise, the modern life also make many customs vanished. Instead of playing the Eagle-flute and Lamb-drum, some wedding were playing the keyboard . The custom about horse-riding to escort the bride was substituted by the car. Thus, this project has recorded the Tajik for three months. The process of the Tajik wedding was recorded with photography documentary. The exhibition that integrated Photography Narrative and dynamic phantom. In the exhibition, with the questionnaire and interaction in Eagle dance, which reflected the audience feedback to the other culture change. Furthermore, I hope that I could make a contribution to preserve images about the culture change for Tajik via this project.