China tried to gag the EU

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China tried to gag the EU

China allegedly tried to stop the European Union from reporting that it was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak.

Reuters has obtained an early version of an EU report on coronavirus disinformation that was published just before the weekend, noting several differences between that document and the one publicly released. Sources told Reuters that China had warned European officials it would be "very angry" if the document were published in its original form.

This prompted several changes, including the deletion of a comment that China had run a disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the pandemic and improve its international image. The published report shared blame for the disinformation campaign between several governments, with Russia more to blame than China.

China sought to block a European Union report alleging that Beijing was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, according to four sources and diplomatic correspondence.

The report was eventually released, just before the weekend, and with some criticism of the Chinese government rearranged or removed, a sign of the balancing act Brussels is trying to pull off as the coronavirus outbreak scrambles international relations.

The Chinese Mission to the EU was not immediately available for comment and China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the exchange. An EU spokeswoman said, "We never comment on the content or alleged content of internal diplomatic contacts and communication with our partners from another country". Another EU official said that the disinformation report had been published as usual and denied any of it had been watered down.

Four diplomatic sources said that the report had initially been slated for release on April 21 but was delayed after Chinese officials picked up on a Politico news report hat previewed its findings.