Is the EU Doing Enough on China? – Visegrad Insight

Recent developments related to Hong Kong led to various responses across the globe. Illustrative in this regard, is the EUs attempt to meet Chinas authoritarian influence with democratic resilience. But is the EU doing enough on China?

This was the topic of the Visegrad Insight Transatlantic breakfast discussion, which took place on 21 July 2020.

Speakers at the meeting:

The discussion was moderated by Wojciech Przybylski, Editor-in-Chief at Visegrad Insight.

At the meeting, Miriam Lexmann stressed that six years ago, when the discussion on disinformation and election meddling started within the EU, its scope was fixed to Russia, rather than China. In the Russian case, there was a clear consensus that the conflict is ideological, while China was considered a business agent, without a need to influence the political processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in this shift, when China started to influence public opinion across the globe, mostly as a response to the discourse of guilt put on the country. Herein, this operation reveals how China was prepared for such a manoeuvre.

Three examples help to demonstrate its significance: the softening of the EU report on China; the self-censoring of the letter by EU Ambassadors published in Chinese media by the EU Ambassador to China and the omittance of the topic of human rights in the trade and investment debates with the Chinese counterparts.

Monika Richter described the processes that led to the altercation of the EU report on China as a case of political filtering and self-censorship. According to Richter, this case reveals the dynamics of how malign influence works by fostering the process of self-questioning and thus failing to defend true values. The one valid response to this intimidation tactics is not to comply with such demands.

Hence, the pandemic was a wake-up moment for EU, but the Union had a difficult time to put itself in a strong posture against the authoritarian regimes in general.

Peter Kreko, drawing upon a project of monitoring MEPs activities, conducted in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy and Visegrad Insight among others, stressed that the EP does the most to counter malign influence from the authoritarian regimes. There is an important shift recently, as China appears more in the discussions in the European Parliament.

Importantly, the rising topic regarding China appears to be human rights violations, rather than trade and investment deals.

Recent Visegrad Insight publications on the topic:

Watch the entire discussion here:

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Is the EU Doing Enough on China? - Visegrad Insight