Screenshot from CNN Prima News YouTube channel showing the two second-tour presidential election candidates Andrej Babiš (left) and Petr Pavel. The current Czech government is reassessing its relationship with China. At the same time, President Miloš Zeman, whose uncritical pro-Beijing stance has often resonated not only in the Czech media but also abroad, is approaching the end of his mandate. What can be expected from his successor and what are the prospects for economic ties between the two countries?” Since assuming office in early 2013, President Zeman has heavily promoted economic diplomacy vis-a-vis China and advocated for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the China Index measuring Beijing's presence across the world, China's influence in the Czech Republic is mostly felt in the areas of media, law enforcement, and indeed in domestic politics and foreign policy. To pursue its rapprochement with Beijing, Prague hosted several Chinese investment forums, and Zeman even acquired a Chinese advisor, Ye Jianming, chairman of the energy and financial company CEFC. In the Czech Republic, CEFC's investments mostly focused on status symbols: the SK Slavia Prague football club, the Lobkowicz brewery, and prime real estate in Prague. CEFC's most ambitious plan in the Czech Republic was to increase its 9.9 percent stake to acquire half of the company's ownership in the J&T Finance Group for CZK 26.3 billion (USD 1.24 billion). However, the Czech National Bank refused to green-light the investment in the Czech banking sector because of the dubious origin of CEFC's capital. The South China Morning Post reported that most of CEFC's acquisitions were financed by Chinese state-owned banks. It is thus not surprising that after the collapse of CEFC as a result of bribery scandals at the UN in 2018, all its Czech assets were acquired by the Chinese state giant CITIC. The Czech management of CEFC Europe presents another piece of the Sino-Czech rapprochement puzzle. Its chairman, Jaroslav Tvrdík, is a former defence minister and chief lobbyist for the wealthiest Czech company, PPF, and its financial subsidiary Home Credit (HC). In PPF's executive director Jiří Šmejc's own words, the company was responsible for the “restart” and de facto pivot of Czech foreign policy towards China. It is not surprising that at the same time, HC China became the first foreign company in China to obtain a nationwide licence to provide consumer credit loans, and profited enormously from that. After several years of success and promising outlook in the consumer loans domain, the regulatory environment began to change, motivated in part by efforts to deleverage the economy, including household indebtedness. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and PPF founder and majority owner Petr Kellner's tragic death in March 2021, its Chinese business has been facing a dim future. “The situation in the Chinese market is not favourable for consumer finance,” Šmejc stated in June last year, adding that the company “is trying to find a strategic partner in China to acquire a majority stake in Home Credit and then take full control of the company.” Besides the infamous story of the CEFC, some Czech media highlighted other financial flows coming from China. In 2018, two Chinese state-owned banks — Bank of China (BOC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — lent over 56 million EUR (45.4 million USD) to agricultural colossus Agrofert, ultimately owned by one of the wealthiest Czechs and, more importantly, the prime minister at the time. According to Forum24 commentators: “The loan to Agrofert is one of the largest Chinese investments in the Czech Republic after virtually none of what President Miloš Zeman promised has materialized.” In some cases, the allegations went so far as to accuse the prime minister of treason. Agrofert refuted these accusations, stating the deal was a standard one with a consortium of multinational banks backing the loan, BOC and ICBC not even being the largest of those. Speaking of banks, another important and sometimes overlooked domain of financial integration revolves around central banks and their activities. During the tenure of Zeman-selected Jiří Rusnok as governor of the Czech National Bank, the institution massively increased its exposure to Chinese yuan-denominated bonds. The Czech National Bank bought nearly CZK 27.5 billion (USD 1.23 billion) worth of Chinese government bonds, an increase of more than 100 percent, during the second half of 2021.