EU condemns Beijing and Russia for "faking false propaganda to conceal the failure of epidemic control"

Reporter : Yu Ning

Editor : Chang Qing

Publisher : Sound Of Hope

Ref : https://www.soundofhope.org/post/388468

Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan

                                 / KUCINTA SETIA

Image courtesy : UIP

The European Commission issued a report on 9 June 2020 condemning the Beijing authorities and the Russian authorities for concealing the failure of their governments in spreading the covid epidemic, false information, splitting the international community and undermining European democracy.

According to the Daily Mail report, the European Commission said in the report that during the pandemic, the Beijing authorities and Russia concealed the failure of their government’s epidemic control, and raised the image of their own government to create polarized speeches and centered on the epidemic. A large amount of misleading false news was disseminated, including false medical claim information, conspiracy theories, fraud and hate speech, but the main social media did not take any measures to solve these problems.

The report reads: "Foreign countries and certain third countries, especially Russia and People's Republic of China (total), have been revolving around the SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) epidemic in order to destroy the democratic debate, intensify the polarization of society, improve their own image and strengthen their own influence. They have engaged in targeted false propaganda activities."

According to the report, many social media platforms have stated that they have taken action to promote more accurate information about the CCP virus and limit false and misleading information on the platform, but the European Commission said in the report that social media platforms need to do more.

The report stated: "During the current public health crisis, fact-checking personnel, researchers and civil society organizations can play a vital role in this regard, but social media platforms have not given them sufficient rights. Additional efforts are needed to increase information sharing, enhance transparency and accountability."

The report said that since the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak of covid in mainland China, Western countries have been condemning the Beijing authorities and Moscow for disseminating a large number of false or misleading statements about the outbreak, turning the CCP virus outbreak into a geopolitical information war. The European Union’s Anti-False Information Working Group detailed the coordinated and false propaganda promoted by Chinese Communist Party officials in order to divert the international community’s condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party’s virus outbreak from mainland China. This report submitted by the European Commission to member states and the European Parliament is more formal and does not use much diplomatic language.

The report said that the EU Council President Michelle and the European Commission President Von Delaine will prepare a video conference with Li Keqiang later this month to discuss the EU’s 2025 agenda (Agenda 2025). EU leaders will urge the CCP to honor its promise to  treat European companies fairly and end the CCP’s forcing overseas companies operating in mainland China to transfer intellectual property rights.

EU Foreign Policy Representative Josep Borrell held a video call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on 9 June. He then warned that the EU needs to invest more resources to deal with the spread of false information.

He said: "We must allocate more resources to combat false information, we must do more in this regard, and not only to combat and counter false information, but we must also put forward a more positive statement."

The report stated that due to the increasingly arrogant image of the CCP on the international stage, the EU is reviewing its relationship with the CCP. The EU has designated the CCP as a "systemic adversary" and is trying to challenge the CCP on human rights issues in Tibet and Hong Kong.

Borelli has expressed in recent weeks that he is very concerned about the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law that the Chinese Communist Party has strongly promoted in Hong Kong, because the Chinese Communist Party does not agree with the EU’s values, and the Chinese Communist Party’s move will stifle Hong Kong’s precious freedom; therefore, the EU’s position on the Chinese Communist Party should be more tough, and urged the EU to be more wise in dealing with the CCP.

The report said that SARS-CoV-2 has caused 7 million people worldwide to be infected, and 400,000 people have died from covid but Russia, which has 482.63 million people infected, claims that only 6133 people died while the outbreak country claimed that only 84195 people were infected, 4638 people died. The international community condemned the Chinese Communist Party and Russia for underestimating the number of people infected and dead.

Political analyst Anton Barbashin said in an interview with CNBC on 20 May that he estimated that the actual number of deaths in Russia may be much higher than the official figures, and that the cause of death of many patients who died of covid may be written as other diseases.