Europe ‘losing’ narrative battle to Russia-China anti-Western message
- Beijing and Moscow suspected of combining to echo messaging on Ukraine, Taiwan and other global crises
- EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell says Russian efforts to blame food crisis, inflation on Western sanctions are succeeding
But one recent post resulted in a notable exception.
A blog written by Borrell in June said the EU was losing a “battle of narratives” around the food crisis, saying Russian efforts to blame soaring inflation on Western sanctions were proving successful.
“You know, each time I’ve tried to put Borrell in Chinese, I was censored within 20 minutes. And now this time, the Chinese are translating Borrell and publishing it themselves,” said a senior EU diplomat in Beijing.
Borrell’s argument was not new. Since coming to office in 2019, he has been warning about Europe’s inability to sell itself to other parts of the world as effectively as autocratic states like China and Russia.
He believes that on everything from food inflation and Covid-19 vaccines, to infrastructure, human rights, and even basic models of governance, the EU is struggling to convince many parts of the world that it has more to offer than these illiberal regimes.