The economic weekly Trend repeatedly serves as a vehicle for Chinese propaganda.
Trend magazine enables the dissemination of Chinese propaganda and disinformation without any journalistic challenge, downplays serious concerns of the European Union over China’s trade practices, and grossly distorts China’s role in the war in Ukraine and its growing assertiveness towards Taiwan.
On 1 August, Trend published what appeared to be an interview with the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Slovakia – authored, in fact, by the ambassador himself, Cai Ge. It consisted of a series of leading questions, granting generous space for the spread of Chinese propaganda.
The text raises numerous questions. The Chinese Embassy presents it as a written interview provided by the ambassador to Trend weekly. However, from the magazine itself it is impossible to ascertain which journalist, if any, conducted the interview.
Published in the “Opinions and Comment” section, the piece lists only the ambassador as the author. One may therefore conclude that the weekly had no editorial control over the “interview”. Whatever its origins, its publication represents a major editorial failure to guard against the spread of propaganda and disinformation.
By virtue of its written format – more a statement from China’s representative than an interview – the ambassador faced no critical reaction or follow-up questions. This enabled him to present one-sided views on European economic policy and EU–China relations, downplaying EU concerns over trade imbalances and the disruptive effects of China’s unfair trading practices on the European market.
The peak of cynicism comes at the end, in a section on Ukraine and Taiwan, introduced as follows: “The Russia–Ukraine conflict has entered its fourth year. Recently, some politicians, academics and media have said that China helped Russia prolong the conflict, and have compared the Ukraine issue to the Taiwan issue in order to exaggerate the ‘China threat theory’. What is your view of such remarks?”
Disinformation on Taiwan and Ukraine
The ambassador’s response perfectly illustrates the danger of Chinese influence operations conducted through media outlets that are unable
or unwilling to guard against propaganda and disinformation from representatives of authoritarian regimes.
Cai Ge asserts: “China’s position is consistent and clear, namely to insist on supporting peace and negotiations. The accusation that China ‘supports the Russian defence industry’ or that ‘China helps Russia circumvent sanctions’ is completely contrary to the facts.”
It is, however, the ambassador’s claims that are fundamentally at odds with the facts. First and foremost, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, made it abundantly clear during a recent meeting with Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, that for China it is unacceptable for Russia to lose the war.
Since the start of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly visited Moscow. “Right now, changes are happening that we have not seen in 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes together,” Xi told Putin as he departed the Kremlin in March 2023.
From the outset of Russian aggression, China has consistently refused to support anti-Russian resolutions at the UN Security Council and General Assembly. It has repeatedly criticised Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its illegal aggression. Chinese banks have also helped Russia circumvent European economic sanctions – prompting the EU recently to impose sanctions on two Chinese banks.
Compared with the period before the war, the export volume of dualuse goods and technologies – both civilian and military – from China to Russia has risen sharply, reaching as much as US$4 billion in 2024. China also supplies Russia with gunpowder and significantly supports Russian drone production.
On Taiwan, the ambassador’s answers echo the standard tropes of Chinese propaganda: “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. Although both sides of the Taiwan Strait have long been in political confrontation, they have never been two countries.
The Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair, and no outside interference is allowed… China firmly rejects irresponsible comments on the Taiwan question, the fabrication and exaggeration of the ‘China military threat’, slandering China by exploiting the Ukraine issue, and spreading Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation.”
Here too, the ambassador’s assertions must be challenged, and a few basic facts recalled. On the matter of Taiwan’s sovereignty, the People’s Republic of China has never in history exercised control over Taiwan. The sovereignty of Taiwan – officially the Republic of China – predates the People’s Republic by almost 40 years, and has existed continuously since 1911.
Taiwan has its own constitution and government. Unlike the communist authoritarian regime in Beijing, Taiwan democratised in the late 1980s, with a government elected through free and fair elections. According to the Democracy Index, it is the most robust democracy in Asia.
Taiwan meets all the criteria of an independent state under international law. Only a negligible share of Taiwan’s population – long between 1 and 2 percent – supports early unification with the PRC, and this figure dropped sharply after Beijing in 2019 curtailed Hong Kong’s treaty-guaranteed autonomy.
Beijing is actively and unilaterally increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait. It conducts military exercises simulating a blockade and invasion of Taiwan in an effort to intimidate its population.
China is boosting defence spending and deploying new amphibiouscapable military systems necessary for an invasion. Last year saw a sharp rise in incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) – more than doubling from the previous year to a record 3,615 flights.
Falling into China’s trap – again
This is not the first time Trend has knowingly disseminated Chinese propaganda. In 2019, during the peak of protests in Hong Kong against Beijing’s interference in its autonomy, Trend served Chinese interests by publishing an article by China’s then-ambassador to Slovakia, Lin Lin. Entitled “China observes the one country – two systems principle, foreign countries should not interfere in its internal affairs”, the piece accused demonstrators of terrorism and claimed the protests were supported by foreign powers. It appeared not as editorial content, but as paid advertising.
This was part of a broader, coordinated campaign to influence foreign media discourse. The China Digital Times reported that on 20 August the press department of China’s foreign ministry sent a letter and a 42-page document containing “facts” about the situation in Hong Kong to more than thirty international media outlets (including Reuters, Bloomberg, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and Asahi Shimbun) with the aim of shaping coverage in Beijing’s favour.
China’s hybrid operations in Slovakia intensify
Chinese influence activities in Slovakia – as in the wider Central European region – have intensified significantly since 2019, to the extent that Slovakia’s SIS counter-intelligence service has issued warnings about them. Beijing receives substantial assistance from the domestic disinformation scene, with Chinese ambassadors regularly appearing on portals such as Hlavný denník, Nové slovo and Zem a vek.
A recent study by the think tank CEIAS shows that China is also making intensive use of co-operation with influencers, enabling it to produce localised content aimed at promoting a positive image of China.
Is this strategy effective in Slovakia? Opinion poll data suggest it is, to a degree. Although Slovaks tend to view China more negatively (39 percent) than positively (34 percent), the proportion with a positive view has risen by 6 percentage points over five years and is now the highest in the Visegrad Group.
Slovakia is also the only V4 country where the public perceives China as less of a threat than the United States. If forced to choose only one international partner between the two, as many as 30 percent would opt for China – twice the proportion in other V4 states.
The article was originally published by the Slovak Spectator.
