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STEFAN BLOMMAERT
Talk about China‘s New Silk Road(s) + Q&A
Past, Present and Future
14:30 Minard
Stefan Blommaert studied Contemporary History at VUB (Brussels) in order to become an archaeologist. Blommaert specialized in the history and current affairs of Eastern Europe. From 1993 to 1994 he was a VRT correspondent in Moscow. In the 1990s he followed the various wars in the Balkans, including the siege of Sarajevo and the Kosovo war. At the end of August 2012 till 2014, he became permanent VRT correspondent in Beijing, China, replacing Tom Van de Weghe.
In 2015 he returned home from China by jeep via the historic Silk Road, for a series of reports
on the 'Belt and Road Initiative' also known as the New Silk Road (launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping as a vast collection of development and investment initiatives stretched from East Asia to Europe, which significantly is expanding China’s economic and political influence.)
Currently Blommaert teaches at the VUB as a fellow professor & guest-lecturer to master students Journalism and still reports for the VRT with the focus mainly on Asia, in particular China. (Stefan Blommaert is the son of Regine Beer, one of the survivors of Auschwitz.)