BRUSSELS ā The European Unionās top diplomat denied Thursday that his agency bowed to pressure from China and watered down a report that criticized the country's role in promoting disinformation about the coronavirus.
In an April 24 article, the New York Times said EU officials had āsoftened their criticism of Chinaā in a report on the way governments push disinformation during the pandemic because the officials were āworried about the repercussionsā of angering one of the blocās biggest trading partners.
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The article, backed by internal email correspondence, caused an uproar at the European Parliament, with EU lawmakers angry that the 27-nation blocās reputation was at stake. The assemblyās foreign affairs committee demanded that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell explain.
During a grilling via videoconference, Borrell said the newspaper had compared the contents of a report meant for internal use within the External Action Service ā essentially the EUās foreign office ā with a different document prepared for broader publication on the agencyās website.
Borrell acknowledged that China did complain about the report, but he said that kind of objection was āthe daily breadā of diplomacy and insisted Beijing had absolutely no influence on thinking inside the EU agency.
Chinese officials āexpressed their concern through the diplomatic channels,ā but the text published on the EUvsDisinfo website remains critical of China and speaks for itself, Borrell said.
āFor sure, they were not happy. They will continue not being happy,ā he said.
āThere was no watering-down of our findings,ā the EU diplomat said. He underlined the blocās policy toward Beijing as treating it āas a key partner, but also a competitor and a systemic rival.ā
While some lawmakers accepted Borrellās explanation, quite a few were critical. Some demanded to see all versions of the reports.
āHonestly, your explanation doesnāt really convince me,ā Belgian parliamentarian Hilde Vautmans said, going on to ask Borrell to tell lawmakers āwho interfered, which Chinese official put pressure, at what level, what means of pressure. I think that Europe needs to know that otherwise weāre losing all credibility.ā
The public report ā a āShort Assessment of Narratives and Disinformationā surrounding the coronavirus ā points to what the authors described as evidence of āa coordinated push by official Chinese sources to deflect any blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and publicizing announcements and deliveries of bilateral assistance.ā
The report also states that āChinese officials and state media try to curtail any mentions of Wuhan as the origin of COVID-19.ā
The report is more critical of Russiaās role in the spread of coronavirus-linked fake news.