Nations in Western Europe are in “complete denial” about the growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party, an EU insider has warned.
Ivana Karásková, a Czech foreign influence specialist working within the European Union, has said that many nations across the bloc are asleep at the wheel when it comes to growing Chinese influence campaigns.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tensions between China and the West have steadily increased, with both the United States and Europe seeing various warnings of increased Chinese Communist Party spy and influence campaigns within their territories.
Speaking to POLITICO, Karásková warned that many nations within Europe have not been paying enough attention to the dangers posed by China, singling out the entirety of the continent’s West as not taking the threat seriously enough.
“In some countries, awareness of [Chinese influence operations] is high because they have a history of Russian-backed action. Elsewhere, it’s complete denial,” the expert, who advises European Commission VP Věra Jourová, explained.
“The whole of Western Europe is not looking. And yet there are cases that are so blatant,” she went on to say, citing one case involving radio stations in the Czech Republic running scripts written entirely by a Chinese state-owned broadcaster.
Karásková also warned that the Chinese Communist Party were pumping more and more resources into influence operations within Europe, singling out non-profits in the EU as potential origin points for CCP-linked threats.
“We have seen a mushrooming of NGOs and think tanks with Chinese funding,” the expert said, adding that it was now time “to shed light on where the financial flows are actually going and to which end”.
The European Union appears to be finally taking action on this final point, with senior bureaucrats pushing for the implementation of a “Transparency Act” which will force NGOs to reveal the national origin of their funding.
Many legacy activists are reportedly unhappy with the move however, warning that the likes of Hungary could end up benefitting from the measure, as — according to POLITICO — it would likely reveal how many human rights NGOs operating in the bloc are funded by the United States.