Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Zhang Ming
Washington … News Time
Letters from diplomats and four other sources indicate that China has pressured the European Union (EU) not to publish a report accusing Beijing of transmitting the coronavirus. Spread misinformation aboutthe report was published before the end of the week as a balanced report to soften or remove criticism of China because Brussels does not want its global relations to be affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese embassy in the European Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the European Union (EU) said in a statement that it had never responded to such calls from other countries, including on internal diplomacy and suspicious matters. Another EU official said the report had been published and rejected allegations that it had been tampered with.
News website Politico reported that at least four diplomatic sources said the report was originally scheduled to be published on April 21, but that it was delayed when information reached China. According to a diplomatic correspondence between the European Union, a senior Chinese official contacted EU officials in Beijing the same day. He told them that if the report was published as it was written, it could affect their relationship. The diplomatic correspondence quoted Li Xiangyang, a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official, as saying that the publication of the report would disappoint Beijing. At the same time, the European Union has been accused of appeasing others, with some EU diplomats referring to China’s accusation as a signal to Washington. Sources said the delay in publishing the report was due to an internal review of the report, but there was a clear discrepancy between the content of the report obtained by Reuters before and after its publication.
For example, on the front page of a report shared with EU governments on April 20, it was written in the EU Foreign Policy section. That China is pursuing propaganda to improve its foreign policy by spreading misinformation around the world about the outbreak of the epidemic. And China has seen both methods used. The report’s public summary said that China’s covert operations on social media were noted, but the last six pages of the report did not provide details. Tensions have risen between China and the United States over the spread of coronavirus misinformation and officials from both countries have been blaming each other for this, but now the European Union has jumped into the fray.
China and the European Union trade more than 1 billion a day, and for the EU, China is the second largest country and center of trade after the United States. Addressing a meeting of the Friends of European Think Tech online, Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Zhang Ming said that misinformation is the enemy of all of us and we must fight it together.
