OFF THE NEWS.

Fears of the Shrewd Chinese Superpower

May have been grossly exaggerated.

If 2019 was the year when Europeans began having serious doubts about Beijing's geopolitical intentions, 2020 may go down in history as the moment they turned against China in defiance. That's not because they blame the Chinese for originating Covid-19, as U.S. President Donald Trump and his secretary of state seem obsessed with doing. It's because China, by trying to capitalize on the pandemic with a stunningly unsophisticated propaganda campaign, inadvertently showed Europeans its cynicism. The motivation behind the Chinese propaganda is obvious enough: With the U.S. flailing under Trump, Beijing sees an opening to finally rise to the status of a second superpower. The biggest geopolitical prize in this contest is the European Union, formerly anchored securely in the transatlantic camp but in recent years increasingly nervous about Trump and open to Chinese trade, investment, and influence.

As the pandemic's epicenter moved from Wuhan to European countries such as Italy and Spain, China initially had the right idea. Starting in mid-March, it sent Europe big shipments of face masks and other medical equipment, adorned with Chinese flags. Some of this gear turned out to be shoddy, but people saw it as a nice gesture. China could have stopped at "mask diplomacy" and come out ahead.

It didn't. Beijing's minions instead began spreading disinformation, apparently intended to paint the European Union's democracies as effete and authoritarian China as comparatively strong. In France, the Chinese Embassy posted on its website a wild accusation that French retirement homes leave old people to die. In Italy, Chinese sock puppets disseminated tales that the coronavirus had in fact originated in Europe, or doctored video clips to show Romans playing the Chinese anthem in gratitude. In Germany, Chinese diplomats (unsuccessfully) urged government officials to heap public praise on China.

In response, the European Union's diplomatic service assembled a report on the disinformation campaigns being waged by China and that other usual suspect, Russia. China probably made a bad situation worse, leaning on the publication's authors to tone it down. At this, members of the European Parliament took even more umbrage and demanded assurances that the European Union will not self-censor under Chinese pressure.

--Andreas Kluth, Bloomberg

Minimal Impact

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