‘Are you sleeping well?’ How Europe’s China researchers are alarmed by efforts to stifle criticism
- One Slovakian researcher was sent a message – which the sender insisted was a joke – saying ‘Big Brother is watching you’ over a report on Chinese influence
- Some European think tanks and academics have been targeted with sanctions, while others face attacks in state media or from diplomats
“Are you sleeping well? You should be in very big stress, when you are walking down the street …”
Slovakian academic Matej Šimalcík had never heard of Ľuboslav Štora before he opened his email on March 30, but he was familiar with the organisation Štora represented.
“Be Patient. Big Brother is watching you,” read a second mail, sent the next day, and signed off as “Director, Confucius Institute in Bratislava”, the capital of Slovakia.
As executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, much of Šimalcík’s time is spent researching China’s ties with the region. Indeed, the email was in response to a report he had co-authored on Chinese institutions’ finances and influence in Slovakia.
But he was still shocked to see the signature at the bottom.
“It is worrying, because it is not like an anonymous attack – I get plenty of those. It’s coming from a place of power, someone is holding an official position with them and a Chinese semi-governmental organisation,” said Šimalcík, who shared the emails with the Post.