China’s Propaganda and Disinformation Campaigns in Central Europe

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, China’s external propaganda has been working hard on damage control, including enlisting the help of Chinese state entities’ social media accounts on international platforms. In Central Europe, Chinese state-backed entities had not been prominent actors in cyberspace until the 2019 Hong Kong protests. This briefing paper shows how, since then, China’s propaganda efforts have been inspired by Russian disinformation tactics and have targeted the same audience disillusioned with the West, often using the same alternative media outlets which often spread Russian narratives.