Despite frequent political interactions, economic cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries has progressed quite slowly, raising the question of why the economic cooperation of China and CEE countries stagnates and how to promote sustainable bilateral cooperation. This study explored the spatiotemporal evolution of China–CEE production cooperation and the value‐added structure of bilateral exports by the long time‐sequenced multi‐region input–output table and methods of input–output technique. The results show that although the production cooperation intensity of China and CEE countries has been increasing in both directions, neither side currently comprises the main foreign production cooperation direction of each other, and the intensity of production cooperation remains low. From the perspective of value‐added structure, foreign value‐added accounts comprise the greatest proportion of exports from CEE countries to China, while a large part of China’s intermediate exports go to other European countries after being imported by CEE countries, which indicates that CEE countries have played an important role of the bridge between China and Europe. States are undoubtedly important in the promotion of global value chain connections. Governments should correctly identify their own advantageous industries in global value chains and focus on extending the industrial chain to formulate cooperation plans. Strengthening the value chain link with Western European countries through production cooperation and improving the capacity of value capture are important directions for China–CEE cooperation.

Civil society is not as impotent as argued by many scholars in facing the pervasive force of economic globalization, and instead can play an important role in the strategic coupling of multinationals with localities. This study attempts to deepen existing research on the strategic coupling of mining production networks by emphasizing the role of social actors at different scales in the coupling process. It uses the qualitative survey method to provide analytical insights into the case of the Letpadaung Copper Mine in Myanmar, which is an investment of the Chinese company Wanbao Mining. Social actors represented by local communities and NGOs may have different interests from mining firms on issues such as land use, rural livelihoods, and environmental impacts, which constitute a sort of social barrier to strategic coupling. Wanbao Mining has taken steps to balance the intentions of multiple actors at different scales through bargaining, ultimately achieving an inclusive coupling that is a win-win for all parties. The concept of social barriers incorporates land-use issues into the strategic coupling research, contributing to the study of socio-economic and political issues of land in the context of globalization.