The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is facing questions over allegations that a report about Chinese disinformation over Covid-19 was watered down in response to pressure from Beijing.
In a letter to Josep Borrell, the Dutch MEP Bart Groothuis calls for a “formal and full explanation to the European parliament” about the evolution of an EU report on disinformation, amid emerging evidence it was altered under Chinese pressure.
Groothuis, a former analyst at the Dutch ministry of defence, said it was extremely important for the EU’s senior management to back independent factual analysis.
“China will become stronger, more prosperous and powerful, also militarily. It won’t be the last time they will try to intervene in internal politics of the EU.” He said it was time for the EU to send a clear signal: “If this is true, this can’t happen again in the future.”
The EU report
On Friday, the European Union’s foreign and diplomatic wing released a report saying there’s evidence of a “coordinated push” by official Chinese sources to deflect blame for the coronavirus pandemic and promote its response to the virus.
“We see continued and coordinated push by some actors, including Chinese sources, to deflect any blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and highlighting bilateral assistance,” the EEAS said.
It continued: “Many reports confirm a high level of coordination between different parts of the Chinese system in messaging and amplification of messages across different languages and communication channels, including the use of overt and covert tactics.”
The summary cited examples of “covert Chinese operations on social media” including the purchase of ads as part of a global propaganda campaign to depict China as a leader in fighting the outbreak.
The report, covering 2-22 April, is equally concerned by false claims and conspiracy theories from Kremlin-backed media. It states that “Russia and – to a lesser extent – China, have continued to widely target conspiracy narratives and disinformation both at public audiences in the EU and the wider neighbourhood”. Last month a leaked EU report concluded that pro-Kremlin media had been spreading disinformation with the aim of “aggravating” the public health crisis in the west.
Chinese pressure
According to the New York Times Chinese officials contacted EU representatives to stop the report from being published and, bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing, European Union officials softened their criticism of China in the final, published report.
The initial European Union report, obtained by The New York Times, cited Beijing’s efforts to curtail mentions of the virus’s origins in China, in part by blaming the United States for spreading the disease internationally. It noted that Beijing had criticised France as slow to respond to the pandemic and had pushed false accusations that French politicians used racist slurs against the head of the World Health Organization.
“China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image,” the initial report said. “Both overt and covert tactics have been observed.”
But China moved quickly to block the document’s release, and the European Union pulled back. The report had been on the verge of publication, until senior officials ordered revisions to soften the language. The sentence about China’s “global disinformation” campaign was removed, as was any mention of the dispute between China and France. Other language was toned down.
“The Chinese are already threatening with reactions if the report comes out,” Lutz Güllner, a European Union diplomat, wrote to colleagues on Tuesday in an email seen by NYT.
The New York Times also quoted an email from a senior adviser to the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, who ordered the report be held back and “asked analysts to differentiate between pushing disinformation and aggressively pushing a narrative.”
An EU official who disagreed with the changes was quoted saying that the bloc’s diplomats were “self-censoring to appease the Chinese Communist Party.”
Chinese diplomats also approached German government officials in an attempt to encourage them to make positive statements on how Beijing is handling the coronavirus pandemic, the German interior ministry said in a letter dated 22 April.
“The German government is aware of individual contacts made by Chinese diplomats with the aim of effecting positive public statements on the coronavirus management by the People’s Republic of China,” said the letter.
Chinese disinformation
Chinese state-controlled media and social media channels have strongly promoted the idea that the Chinese model is superior in tackling Covid-19, while highlighting global expressions of gratitude for Chinese aid delivery, including in Italy. Chinese officials, even as senior as the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, have also promoted the idea that the virus was invented by the US army and that America is responsible for the pandemic.
Many experts argue that besides crafting a better international image, the intentional spread of disinformation is aimed at serving China’s overall goal to maintain social stability at home.
Earlier this month, a group of British MPs from the Foreign Affairs Committee claimed that Chinese Covid-19 disinformation campaign has “cost lives”.
In a report, Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat MP said Beijing had initially “allowed disinformation to spread as quickly as the virus”. He added: “Rather than helping other countries prepare a swift and strong response, it is increasingly apparent that they manipulated vital information about the virus in order to protect the regime’s image.”