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This article is part of the series Facing China.
Beijing has hit on a new tool to win friends and influence people in the EU capital: a new media headquarters for one of the largest Chinese state-owned media powerhouses.
China Media Group is considering opening a European office in Brussels, a number of people with close knowledge of the company told POLITICO.
The group — also known as “Voice of China” — acts as the umbrella organization for the state-owned TV channel China Global Television News (CGTN) and its sister broadcaster China Radio International. It was formed in March 2018 through a merger of China Central Television (CCTV), CGTN, China Radio International and China National Radio.
The move to unify the state-run outlets was designed to centralize power and resources, according to David Bandurski, co-director of the independent research group China Media Project. It is part of a wider effort by Chinese President Xi Jinping “to ensure that China is able, from the Party’s standpoint, to centralize control over news and public opinion,” he said.
The leadership at China Media Group believes that “they can better undermine [the] EU in its own backyard,” according to one person at CGTN with knowledge of the group’s motivations.
“Having a headquarters in Brussels could be seen as a necessary strategy in trying to influence the discussion about China in Europe,” he added.
It would not be the Chinese group’s first foray in Europe, but one they hope will go more smoothly than the last.
CGTN opened a European hub in London two years ago, only to have it quickly come into the crosshairs of British broadcasting regulator Ofcom, which found it breached broadcasting regulations on several occasions.
The company faces sanctions over the airing of a forced confession of British journalist Peter Humphries and repeated, biased reporting on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
The leadership at China Media Group believes “the climate in [the] U.K. turned against them” and that “they can better undermine [the] EU in its own backyard,” according to one person at CGTN with knowledge of the group’s motivations.
China Media Group and China Central Television News did not respond to requests for comment.
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The Chinese media group’s push to increase its influence in Brussels comes at a particularly sensitive time for the EU capital, which has stumbled in its efforts to handle a ramping up of Chinese diplomatic pressure in recent months.
In April, the European External Action Service — the EU’s foreign policy arm — came under fire following reports that it had watered down the wording in a report on Chinese disinformation after interference from China’s embassy in Brussels.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was hauled in front of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee where he denied the EEAS had bowed to the will of Beijing.
He insisted that consulting with embassies is a normal way of conducting diplomacy and that “there were two different publications for two different audiences.”
CGTN has faced criticism overs it coverage of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong | Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
His answer didn’t do much to quell the unease, particularly after China took on a more aggressive tone with Europe in an effort to push back against perceived efforts to blame the global coronavirus pandemic on Beijing.
The EU is also in the midst of an ongoing public consultation on how to regulate non-EU companies that receive state funding and operate within the European Union. The European Commission proposed in a white paper to give itself powers to vet foreign companies with the same rules they vet EU firms.
Until those regulations are in place — a Commission proposal is expected in 2021 — the China Media Group will have more leeway in the capital, with few requirements to be transparent about how much funding it receives from the Chinese government.
The move to Brussels would boost Chinese media presence in the EU capital — the Belgian capital already plays host to the regional headquarters of the state-owned Xinhau news agency — and potentially allow the media company to influence debates.
Not everyone sees the potential arrival in Brussels of a state-owned Chinese media giant as a cause for concern.
It is also part of an effort by the China Media Group to clean up its image, as the reputation of its TV branch, CGTN, has taken a hit across the world.
In the U.K., the channel faces the possibility it may lose its broadcasting license over Ofcom’s rulings. A spokesperson for the U.K. regulator also said it is investigating three further “fairness and privacy complaints about programs broadcast on CGTN.”
CGTN responded to the U.K. regulator’s rulings by saying it is “disappointed” and that it has a “responsibility to present Chinese viewpoints and perspectives in our news reporting, which is what our viewers expect.”
Adding to the regulation breaches in the U.K., one of CGTN’s hosts of Australian citizenship, Cheng Lei, was recently detained in China amid escalating tensions between Canberra and Beijing over accusations from Australia about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
CGTN, which has large studios in Beijing, Washington and Nairobi, isn’t expected to follow China Media Group to Brussels yet, according to someone working at CGTN.
If the television broadcast did eventually follow China Media Group to Brussels and set up a studio here, it would become the only non-Belgian TV news channel to base its European hub in the EU capital. Euronews is based in Lyon, Deutsche Welle is in Bonn and American channels like CNN and NBC base their European operations out of London.
Further moves into Brussels would be part of the Chinese government’s push for the group’s media outlets to “serve the party through its work.”
Not everyone sees the potential arrival in Brussels of a state-owned Chinese media giant as a cause for concern.
“Personally, I’m convinced that the large majority of Chinese journalists are very serious and trying to do their job in the most honest way possible,” said Bernard Dewit, the chairman of the Belgium-China Chamber of Commerce.
The more Chinese media is present in Brussels, “the better Europe will be known in China and by the Chinese public,” he added.
