Europe has lately been reluctant to see further unrestricted Chinese expansion into the European continent, not least in the eastern and central European states. Even if many states initially saw the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as something that could be economically lucrative and a balance between the EU and the U.S., this has changed to a more critical posture towards China. This is not to say that cooperation between China and Europe is inherently harmful, but the Chinese interference in the internal affairs of the EU, unfair trade policies and lack of deliverables in its economic interaction, de facto support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as breaches against human and political rights domestically, has made it difficult for EU to engage in an unrestricted trade and political relationship with China.