Plamen Tonchev is Head of Asia Unit at the Athens- based Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER). He is founding member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC) and a member of the EU Chapter of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific committee (EU CSCAP). Plamen has specialized in Chinese studies since the late 1990s and has published extensively in the field. His research interests cover both China’s politics and economy and its standing on the international scene, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and EU-China relations.