A Friday at 11.35 p.m. All communication professionals will tell you. Now is not the perfect time to issue a press release if you want to read it widely. This is however the moment which has been chosen by the European Union to announce the publication of its special report on disinformation around Covid-19 issues. A rather discreet exit for a particularly crucial question.
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Changed criticism of Beijing?
The report was originally scheduled to be released earlier this week, but Reuters said China has asked to modify or delete certain criticisms of the Chinese government.
Publication delayed according to diplomatic sources
The American news agency quotes “four diplomatic sources” that the report was originally scheduled to be released on April 21, three days before Friday, April 24. But according to these sources, Chinese representatives have taken cognizance of certain elements of the report published by the American news site Politico.
Reuters was also able to consult a European diplomatic correspondence which then evokes a contact between a high Chinese representative and European representatives in Beijing. China’s message: “sif the report is as described and is published today, it will be very bad for cooperation. “
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A risk of putting Beijing “very angry”
Also according to Reuters, this diplomatic correspondence also evokes an explicit statement by Yang Xiaoguang, high representative of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said publication of the report would put Beijing “very angry” and accused European representatives of seeking to satisfy “someone else“A reference to the United States according to the interpretation of European diplomats cited in this correspondence.
All sources consulted by Reuters claim that the delay in publication is a consequence of these backstage discussions. But the agency added that there had been changes between the initial version of the report obtained by Reuters and the one finally released.
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A “watered down” version?
According to the agency, on the first page of the version of the report obtained by Reuters which was shown internally to the different governments of the European Union on April 20, it reads: “China has continued to organize a global disinformation campaign to deflect criticism of the spread of the epidemic and improve its image on the international stage. Undisguised and clandestine tactics have both been observed. “
The first page of the summary posted on the European Union’s anti-disinformation portal on Friday seems more measured about China. “Despite their potentially serious impact on public health, official sources and those supported by various governments, including Russia and – to a lesser extent – China, have continued to spread conspiratorial speech and misinformation to an audience within the European Union and in neighboring countries “.
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The European Union denies submitting to external pressures
This Monday, during the traditional press briefing of the European Commission, the topic was hot and was the subject of several questions. Spokesman for the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, insisted. “I reject any accusation that it is said that we are subject to external pressures “. He adds : “We have not made any changes to the report. Nor have we had multiple versions of this report which has been made public. There are always two procedures when we analyze and write a report like this. Everything first there are internal documents, internal material aimed at different audiences. Then there is the publication itself which follows an independent parallel procedure which is not necessarily linked to the first. The objectives are different , the content may be different, the target audience is different and therefore the publication process is different. There are two procedures and two documents and one document does not necessarily reflect the other […] Our publications are subject to internal procedures only, and the final version, as published, is determined by internal factors, not external actors. “
For China: “disinformation is an enemy for all of us”
For his part, the Chinese ambassador to the European Union Zhang Ming, said that “lat disinformation is an enemy to all of us and it must be dealt with by all of us “during an exchange with the think tank Friends of Europe. He added : “COVID-19 is a human tragedy and not a political playground.”
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“The Chinese Communist Party has an interest in showing an image of efficiency”
For Thierry Kellener, poLitologist specialist in China at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), the global health crisis linked to Covid-19 is in any case a major issue for China, especially in terms of communication.
“China has an interest in removing as much of its responsibility as possible explains Thierry Kellener at the RTBF microphone. First there is its internal audience. It is very important for the Communist Party to portray efficiency in relation to its own public opinion in an attempt to show that the party has done everything it could in the most effective way possible. The speech that has been constructed is precisely to reject responsibility at the local level in order to clear the central power and not to tarnish the image of President Xi Jingping. China also has a message for the international audience. Here too, the Chinese Communist Party has an interest in showing an image of efficiency in dealing with this crisis and, if possible, beyond that, trying to spread the idea to the world that China is a model. The idea is to show that the Chinese way of doing things is more effective than that of Westerners to show that China is a country capable of taking leadership. “
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“The European Union is obliged to spare Beijing”
Whatever the final word regarding the history of this document, Thierry Kellener also underlines the current international context which, according to him, obliges the European Union to walk on eggs at diplomatic level. “We have an immediate dependence on China, especially with regard to the supply of medical equipment. This may not be the time to criticize your supplier. And when we think of the post-Covid-19 era, everything The world is wondering how the economy is going to recover. Given the isolationist tendencies of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, Europeans have great difficulty finding themselves in a situation where they would be angry with their two most important partners. In this context, the European Union is obliged to spare Beijing “.
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