By Luke Baker, Robin Emmott
https://www.reuters.com/journalists/luke-baker
https://www.reuters.com/journalists/robin-emmott
Earlier this month, Europe’s ambassador in Beijing submitted to Chinese censorship.
Seeking to mark an anniversary of the European Union’s relations with China on May 6, he and the EU’s 27 ambassadors co-wrote an opinion piece titled “EU-China ties vital amid global crisis,” for publication on embassy websites and in China Daily, an English-language newspaper controlled by the state.
“The outbreak of the coronavirus in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months,” said the carefully orchestrated piece, had “temporarily side-tracked” plans for meetings.
But in the China Daily version, the reference to the virus starting in China was deleted.
The change emerged as the article appeared on EU embassy websites, causing alarm among representatives of member states. Diplomats said the ambassador, French diplomat Nicolas Chapuis, had not consulted his bosses in Brussels or his fellow envoys about the change. He had, the EU executive said on May 7, unilaterally decided to accept it, with “considerable reluctance.”
Chapuis told a news conference the omission was “regrettable;” his boss, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, subsequently spoke out against censorship by China’s state controlled media. Borrell also said that accepting the cut “was not the right decision to take,” though Chapuis kept his job.
China Daily did not respond to requests for comment, but the paper’s bureau chief in Brussels, Chen Weihua, responded to the EU ambassador on Twitter, saying, “You did nothing wrong. I don’t think those people should make a big fuss of the editing out of such a phrase.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-china-insig/as-china-pushes-back-on-virus-europe-wakes-to-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-idUSKBN22Q2EZ