Coronavirus: EU rebuffed Beijing’s attempt to water down report critical of China, diplomat says
- Josep Borrell admits Chinese pressure over a report criticising the country’s role in promoting disinformation about the pandemic, but says it was unsuccessful
- Several members of the European Parliament say answers from the bloc’s top diplomat fail to address their concerns
China tried to influence European Union efforts to document Beijing’s disinformation tactics during the coronavirus pandemic, the bloc’s chief diplomat admitted for the first time on Thursday.
But Josep Borrell dismissed media accusations that the EU bowed to China’s threats and altered its report, describing diplomats’ efforts to influence each other to further their own political agenda as commonplace.
The EU’s overall position on China, he said, remains the same as the three-fold identity first set out by the European Commission last year: a key partner, a competitor and a systemic rival.
“Did China put pressure? Look, it’s clear and evident that China expressed their concerns when they knew the document that was leaked. They expressed their concerns through the diplomatic channels,” Borrell told the European Parliament in Brussels.
“I am not going to reveal how it was done because we don’t explain publicly this kind of diplomatic context. Yes, [there] was expression of concern by the Chinese diplomacy.”
Borrell said the published report “very clearly points out state-sponsored disinformation campaigns and very specifically names the actors behind them, including China.”
