“While Beijing’s efforts have received much less scrutiny than the efforts of Putin’s Russia, Europe neglects China’s increasing influence at its own peril,” the report warns. “Beijing’s political influencing efforts in Europe are bound to be much more consequential in the medium to long-term future than those of the Kremlin.”
Beijing’s growing influence is dangerous for Europe, the report warns, because “China’s political model is based on an authoritarian regime intent on strengthening a deeply illiberal surveillance state at home while also exporting — or at least trying to popularize — its political and economic development model abroad.” [...]
The authors cite former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s new job at a Chinese state-backed investment fund and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s role as chief adviser to the China-CEE Fund, which invests in Eastern European countries, as recent examples of China’s strategy to influence Britain’s highest political circles. Brown “has also been actively organizing conferences promoting China’s [Belt and Road Initiative, an investment plan] at his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh,” they write.
No comments:
Post a Comment