CCP Tried to Pressure Germany Into Spouting China’s Coronavirus Propaganda

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) diplomats attempted to pressure members of the German government into praising China’s handling of the Wuhan virus pandemic, Germany’s interior ministry claimed in a letter.

The ministry sent the letter to a Green Party MP and frequent critic of the CCP, Margarete Bause, who questioned whether the Chinese government had been pressuring the German government to make positive statements about Beijing’s handling of the Wuhan virus.

“The German government is aware of individual contacts made by Chinese diplomats with the aim of effecting positive public statements on the coronavirus management by the People’s Republic of China,” the letter seen by Reuters on Sunday said.

“The federal government has not complied with these requests,” the letter, dated April 22nd, added.

The letter did note, however, that without prompting from the communist regime, the German government had praised China’s efforts to contain the spread of the virus within Wuhan.

“[The ministry’s] answer is inadequate and quiescent towards Beijing. How many officials in which ministries were contacted? What were the consequences?” Ms Bause asked.

The director of the Global Public Policy Institute, Thorsten Benner, said that Angela Merkel’s government has failed to push back against Chinese disinformation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic adequately.

“So far neither the foreign ministry nor the chancellory have said anything public criticising the [Chinese] party-state’s propaganda, disinformation and influencing efforts surrounding Beijing’s coronavirus management,” Benner said per the South China Morning Post.

“Merkel’s silence on Beijing’s propaganda and disinformation is particularly deafening,” he added.

Last week, Breitbart London reported that the European Union had capitulated to demands from China to soften a report that detailed the coronavirus disinformation campaign carried out by the CCP.

In response to revelations that communist officials sought to influence German politicians, the Chinese embassy in Berlin told the state-run newspaper the Global Times that: “Any attempt to stigmatise China’s efforts to control the outbreak and its cooperation with other countries will damage the atmosphere of cooperation and weaken our efforts to fight the virus.”

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka