CCP Propaganda Seeks to Undermine European Unity, Experts Say

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping (L) talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, as they arrive for the welcoming ceremony in Beijing on April 6, 2023. (LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—China’s communist leadership is attempting to fracture European unity and sow distrust in international organizations, according to testimony received by a U.S. government agency.

China now considers a politically fragmented Europe to be among its core interests, according to Andrew Small, a senior fellow for the German Marshall Fund think tank.

“I think that has been one of the big shifts on the Chinese side [in recent years],” Small said during a June 15 hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

“The belief has … become that it’s better to be able to deal with individual European member states on an individual basis, it’s better to be able to sort of carve up Europe.”

Small said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, views European unity to be a threat to its interests. CCP leader Xi Jinping is determined to isolate European nations and encourage them to break away from working with the United States against the regime, Small said.

“The approach on the Chinese side and the assessment of Xi Jinping will certainly be that fragmenting Europe on this, and complicating the capacity for Europe to pull together on these actions, is a course of action they should proceed down.”

Europe Disillusioned by CCP

European nations are rapidly souring on the CCP due to the regime’s ongoing support for Russia and its war of conquest in Ukraine.

While many European nations are wary of getting involved in the U.S.-China rivalry, Small said, their hope for robust engagement with China cratered after Xi’s visit to Moscow in March. There, he and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to unite to create change in the international system that “hasn’t happened in 100 years.”

“This was tried as a ‘peace mission’ by Chinese diplomats,” Small said, “and I think it was absolutely clear that Xi Jinping had no intention of even pretending that that was the case.

“The European Council meeting that took place after the Xi Jinping trip to Moscow was characterized by real concern on the part of European leaders about what the trajectory of China-Russia relations actually was.”

Small said the CCP had determined that its relationship with Russia was more important than ties with the European Union (EU) for fulfilling its military, political, and ideological goals.

That acknowledgment has given EU nations some resolve to counter the regime, with many now considering China an unwelcome interloper in European security.

“The damage to relations has been incredibly pronounced, but I think it’s reconditioned thinking in Europe so that there’s a different level of understanding essentially of China as an enabler of security threats in Europe,” Small said.

‘The Narrative Is Different’

Perhaps with that knowledge in mind, the CCP is adapting its international propaganda to spark unrest in the EU, according to Ivana Karaskova, a fellow at the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Over the past several years, she said, CCP propaganda had evolved in Europe from at times a laughable public relations campaign to something more malign. Whereas previous overseas propaganda efforts focused on portraying China as a great nation and Xi as a wonderful leader, new propaganda efforts seek to undermine the international order.

Throughout the EU, she said, new CCP propaganda outlets were targeting fringe political groups and candidates on both the extreme left and right, and encouraging them to distrust their own governments and reject international institutions.

“This is a change,” Karaskova said. “The narrative is different. The narrative is do not trust your government. Do not trust NATO [or the] EU. Do not trust the membership of international organizations.”

EU Seeks Its Own Path

Regardless of the CCP’s efforts to undermine the EU’s legitimacy, European nations remain hesitant on joining the United States in any overt condemnations of the regime.

Whereas the United States has fully embraced the concept of strategic competition with communist China, the EU seeks its own path in dealing with the regime. One that, preferably, will keep it out of the crosshairs of both China and the United States.

Still, the belief in Europe is that unfettered economic cooperation with China is “running its course,” according to Noah Barkin, a senior adviser for the Rhodium Group research firm.

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the CCP’s continued support for the Kremlin’s war, European leaders are instead seeking “diversification, resilience, and de-risking,” he said.

“Europe has been recalibrating its relationship with China for over half a decade,” Barkin said. “But the relationship entered a new phase following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.”

To that end, USCC Commissioner Aaron Friedberg said that, while European acknowledgment of the China challenge would remain, the extent of EU nations’ alignment with the United States in the broader strategic competition with the CCP is an open question.

“It remains to be seen whether the U.S. and European perceptions and policies will continue to align more closely,” Friedberg said.

“There are still significant differences of opinion regarding the extent and urgency of the challenge China presents, both across Europe and within several key European countries, as well as between Europe and the United States.”