Multiple reports say Chinese officials pressured European leaders to make positive statements about China in order to get shipments of medical supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The revelations, reported by Axios, raise more questions about Beijing’s efforts to portray the communist country as a reliable leader in global public health.
In recent months, high-ranking government officials from countries fighting coronavirus have praised China for its assistance.
The Italian foreign minister gave China credit for saving lives in Italy, the Serbian president kissed the Chinese flag as a shipment of medical supplies arrived, and the Mexican foreign minister tweeted a photo of a plane delivering Chinese aid, writing “Gracias China!!!” the website reported.
But some officials now say there was pressure to praise Beijing.
In Poland, Chinese officials pressured President Andrzej Duda to call Chinese President Xi Jinping to offer his thanks on behalf of the nation.
“Poland wasn’t going to get this stuff unless the phone call was made, so they could use that phone call” for propaganda purposes, the US ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, told the New York Times.
German officials said they had been approached by Chinese officials urging them to make positive statements about China’s coronavirus response and international assistance, according to German newspaper Die Welt Am Sonntag.
“What is most striking to me is the extent to which the Chinese government appears to be demanding public displays of gratitude from other countries; this is certainly not in the tradition of the best humanitarian relief efforts,” Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations told the Times.
“It seems strange to expect signed declarations of thanks from other countries in the midst of the crisis,” she added.
“The fairly aggressive party-state effort to ‘tell a good China story’ actually increases public awareness that these propaganda efforts on the Chinese side are going on,” Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, told Axios.
“They are shooting themselves in the foot by being so pushy on this.”
President Trump has lashed out at Chinese officials, asserting that they could have contained the virus but did not, a charge the Chinese Communist Party denies.