I can confirm OP's post regarding the situation in Greece. The Chinese have dominated the local real estate market for the past 5-7 years, taking full advantage of the economic crisis the country went through. They were also allowed by the government to infiltrate the docks to a great extent.
During the early stages of the pandemic, when the shit hit Europe and everybody was (rightly) blaming China for what was happenning in northern Italy, I remember various Chinese ambassadors to European countries donating masks to the local governments. The amount of good press these "gestures of goodwill" managed to garner was ridiculous and suggests that the red influence extends to the media as well.
Another example of this is the open hostility towards the US government in the European press. I mean, Trump has never been well-liked in Europe since he preaches American exceptionalism with every breath he takes but it wasn't until he (rightly) began blaming the Chinese and WHO for the uncontrollable spread of the virus that he became almost universally hated by nearly every single major news outlet in Europe. I swear, it's almost as if the Italians who were royally fucked by the corona get more offended by the term "chinese virus" than the Chinese themselves.