As China’s relations with the US and the EU take an increasingly adversarial turn, China’s advances towards Central & Eastern European countries (CEECs) have attracted much scholarly interest, including a journal special issue (Vangeli & Pavlicevic, 2019). While many papers have examined China-CEEC relations from geopolitical, regional and country-level angles, there is a dearth of studies that focus on the perspectives of business actors and managers, obscuring their roles, motivations and experiences on the ground, which are vital for understanding the nuanced nature of this issue beyond politics and macroeconomics. This paper focuses on the changing roles and efforts of local business associations in shaping and legitimising Hungary-China business relations. The analysis is based on interviews with Hungarian business association and company leaders and advisors conducted in 2012, and new data to be collected in a considerably changed environment today. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of business networks and business-government collaborations in small open economies in turbulent times.
