China has gifted security technology to a number of foreign nations, stretching from Ecuador in South America to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Whether such technologies are part of China’s BRI efforts to construct ‘a community of common destiny’ or are backed by some other ulterior motive is unclear.

Free of value-based conditions or demands for political reform, Chinese investment in the Balkans is simultaneously opening European markets and securing like-minded political allies.

In the past decade, China has increasingly been perceived in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as a country which could bring economic benefits to the region through developing trade relations, growing inflow of Chinese investment and recently also through infrastructure projects.