China is successfully manipulating and subverting media in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, according to The Diplomat magazine in Japan.
China employs content-sharing strategies, as well as outright acquisition of outlets that could spread a positive image of Beijing and attack democracy movements in Hong Kong, according to Ivana Karásková, an expert on EU and Chinese relations at Charles University in Prague.
According to the author, “references to the ‘bright’ or ‘better future of Hong Kong’ that would follow if and when the protests stop” were found in Czech, Estonian, Latvian, North Macedonian, Polish, and Slovak articles, “revealing a coordinated, region-wide effort to swing the narrative in favor of the Chinese Communist Party’s discourse”.
Chinese embassies in Central and Eastern Europe, including in Lithuania, managed to embed lavish ambassadors’ op-eds in the local media that were critical of the Hong Kong protests.
