Inflaming Transatlantic Tensions? China’s Public Diplomacy Efforts to Influence EU-US Relations

The authors explore efforts by Chinese government representatives in the EU to influence European public opinion during the 2020 US Presidential elections. Over a four-week period around 3 November 2020, they examine the tweets of 25 Chinese govern- ment EU-based Twitter accounts to assess whether there was an enhanced and sustained ef- fort to influence European public opinion on key geopolitical issues. Their analysis identifies Chinese government efforts on Twitter to influence European public opinion on the US, includ- ing through proxy references. Further research is required to establish the link between global Chinese government accounts and European-based Chinese government representatives, as well as to test more advanced tools for tweet retrieval, for example through sentiment analysis. (NOTE: the paper is a first-step research output published in: https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/China’s-Digital-Power-report.pdf)