I noticed a lot of Eastern Europeans (that is the average joe type) have a total misconception of China based on their own history.
Because China is ruled by a "Communist Party", they are instantly coloured by the feelings of their own country's history which is frankly irrelevant to the discussion.
Many don't seem to grasp the fundamental difference (probably due to ignorance of history) that the rule of the Communist Party was not something forced onto China by an outside power like the USSR, but something literally implemented by choice through spilled blood.
On top of this, basically the Chinese Communists and Soviet Communists had no relationship after Stalin's death, this is why they had such radical differences in policy reforms.
Since the USA can take a lot of responsibility for the collapse of the USSR, many Eastern Europeans are thankful for being "freed from communism", and to be honest, rightfully so. Most of them have very little interest in going back to that system. However China is fine with being "communist", so it is easy to make a bogeyman out of them.