Post-Brexit and Post-Corona: The UK, the EU and Central East Europe: ‘Illiberal Democracy’ and the Influence of China

Haba, Kumiko

In this chapter, the author investigates and analyzes the effect of Brexit in the UK after Covid-19, the expansion of China’s influence in the Central–East–Southern half of the European Union, and the emerging narrative of “Illiberal Democracy” from Hungary’s leader Victor Orbán that is shaking western values in Central East Europe(*). In the UK, the birthplace of parliamentary democracy, the parliament rejected the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the EU and Prime Minister May on three occasions. After the May government resigned, the government of Boris Johnson in the wake of a general election victory (December 2019) was able to secure a prompt exit from the EU at the end of January 2020. However, the new economic relationship between the EU and the UK is yet to be reconstructed. Negotiations remain on-going at a time when Covid-19 continues to cause a large loss of life and major economic disruption. It is a phenomenon not to be overlooked, that Asian Countries controlled Covid-19 very well, including Australia and New Zealand, but especially Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam. How will the post-Covid-19 world change? The trend of international ‘power politics’ in the early twenty-first century appears to be strengthening, Chinese influence is widening through the 16 + 1 and 17 + 1 policy and is making itself felt across half of the European Union. As a result of Brexit, the future of Britain's political and economic clout remains uncertain. Are we now truly witnessing a shift in the global order when the economic and medical reliance and wider influence of Asian countries become a reality post-Brexit and once Covid-19 abates?