China is using the coronavirus to bully Europe

The EU’S kowtowing to Beijing over the outbreak will embolden the Chinese to meddle even further

For Chinese television viewers, images of Italians taking to their balconies and applauding Beijing for sending urgent medical supplies must have provided a degree of much-needed reassurance.

The suggestion that at least one country was still prepared to show its gratitude will have been welcome at a time when almost the entire world is blaming Beijing for the enormous suffering, both personal and economic, that has been caused by its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The importance of this display of appreciation was not lost on the Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine, which posted a video clip on Twitter, accompanied by a commentary by Zhao Lijian, China’s ubiquitous foreign ministry spokesman, who declared: “In Rome, with the Chinese anthem playing, some Italians chanted ‘Grazie, Cina!’ on their balconies, & their neighbors applauded along.” The only issue with this otherwise heart-warming display of Italian affection for the Chinese people is that it never actually happened – at least not in the way it was broadcast by the Chinese media.

A detailed analysis carried out by Italian communications experts has concluded that several video clips broadcast by Chinese state television in March had been doctored to give the appearance that ordinary Italians were offering their gratitude to China, when, in fact, they were simply demonstrating their thanks to Italian medical staff.

There was no playing of the Chinese national anthem during the applause, as the video suggested, and the entire production was nothing more than an exercise in fake news.

Italy is not the only European country that has been the victim of the sophisticated disinformation campaign that Beijing is promoting as part of its attempts to divert attention away from its involvement in causing the crisis. The French government was outraged last month after Chinese diplomats suggested that care workers in French nursing homes had abandoned their jobs, leaving the residents to die.

Germany’s interior ministry, meanwhile, has revealed that Chinese diplomats tried to persuade government officials to make positive statements on how Beijing was handling the pandemic.

The mounting evidence of Chinese misconduct in Europe makes it all the more regrettable, therefore, that the European Union, whose primary duty is to protect the interests of member states, has proved so unwilling to hold Beijing to account.

Twice in recent weeks EU officials have been on the verge of criticising China’s conduct, only to back down at the last minute because of pressure from Beijing.

First, there was last month’s EU report into how some governments were promoting disinformation about the pandemic, which reached the perfectly reasonable conclusion that “China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image.”

Following strong objections from Beijing, that sentence, together with other disobliging references to China, were removed from the final draft, prompting one irate official to accuse the EU, with some justification, of ”self-censoring to appease the Chinese Communist Party”.

This incident was followed, earlier this month, by Beijing’s censorship of an innocuous article written by the EU’S 27 ambassadors to mark the 45th anniversary of the opening of diplomatic relations between the EU and China. The article’s publication in the state-run newspaper China Daily was only authorised after the EU capitulated to a demand from the Chinese foreign ministry that it first delete any suggestion that the pandemic originated in China.

The EU’S excuse for kowtowing to Beijing is that it needs to preserve vital trade ties with China – estimated at around £1.3 billion a day before the pandemic – which Brussels believes will be vital to rebuilding Europe’s post-coronavirus economy.

Yet, at a time when Beijing is actively seeking to increase its influence in Europe, the EU’S failure to confront Beijing over its blatant propaganda will only encourage China’s communist rulers to think they can meddle in Europe’s affairs with impunity.

Beijing’s decision, for example, to highlight Italy in its clumsy disinformation campaign was no accident. Italy is the first G7 country to sign up to China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative, and Beijing has been working hard to deepen its commercial ties in southern Europe.

Having already secured a licence to run Greece’s largest port, Athens’s Piraeus harbour, Beijing is looking to invest in four of Italy’s major ports. And with the Italian economy teetering on the brink of collapse, with public debt set to hit 160 per cent of GDP – its highest since the Second World War – there are many in Italy who increasingly regard China as the country’s economic saviour.

With the EU either unwilling or unable to stem China’s insidious march on Europe, it falls on individual governments to decide whether they are prepared to stand their ground and hold Beijing to account for its actions or, like Italy, surrender their interests to Beijing’s wishes.