A Chinese proposal to fund and build a massive undersea rail tunnel between Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland has been shelved after the Estonian government raised concerns. Contracts would have been awarded to state-linked firms including China Railway International Group, China Railway Engineering Company, and the China Communications Construction Company, but a July 31, 2020 statement from Estonian Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab mentioned “environmental, economic, and security reasons” to doubt the project’s viability. Among the government’s expressed concerns included additional costs for “developing and maintaining national defense capabilities,” likely relating to securing transit access in any crisis. More broadly, however, the government appears wary of having an important piece of the country’s infrastructure dependent on Chinese financing. A Chinese-owned company, Touchstone Capital Partners, had nominally pledged up to 15 billion euros for the tunnel project in partnership with Finnish private company FinEst Bay Area Development, but a UK report in 2019 found that Touchstone only had assets of £1. The planned tunnel, some 100km in length, potentially would have formed a portion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, especially if it could eventually link to other projects in the Arctic or the Balkans. An Estonian think tank report raised concerns of the project inviting more Chinese political and strategic presence in the country, potentially blurring economic and military aims with dual-use investments.