Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said in a report that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to silence critical voices and dominate key technologies in Estonia and other democracies. The Chinese Communist Party requested that the report be revised, but Estonia refused.
On Feb. 12, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service released an annual report highlighting Beijing‘s increased infiltration and influence in the West through economic leverage, surveillance of Chinese citizens abroad, and cultivation of local elites.
The report said China (the Communist Party) wants “a silenced, Beijing-dominated world.
The Chinese Embassy in Estonia said the report was biased and requested changes to it, which the Estonian foreign minister rejected.
Report Reveals Communist Attempt to Make World Dependent on Chinese Technology
In the report, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service warns that the CCP is expanding its infiltration of Estonia through investments, 5G networks and other means. The report makes clear that a clear goal of the Chinese Communist Party leadership is to make the world dependent on Chinese technology.
The report mentions huawei 5G and the Beidou navigation system.
During the Trump administration, the U.S. has been promoting a global “net-cleaning” program that excludes products from unsafe manufacturers, including Huawei, from 5G networks.
On Nov. 22, 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that to date, 180 telecommunications companies in 53 countries, including dozens of leading global companies, have joined the U.S.-run “clean network,” including 27 NATO countries. Estonia has also joined the “clean network” program, pledging not to use products from “untrustworthy” vendors in its 5G network.
The report said that the implementation of Communist foreign policy dogma or the creation of a so-called “community of Destiny” would produce a silenced, Beijing-dominated world.
The report also says the Communist Party is spreading disinformation “following the precedent of Russia.
Chinese Communist Party Jumps to Revise Report, Estonian Foreign Minister Refuses
Photo: Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu.
The Voice of America reports that the Chinese Embassy in Estonia issued a statement Feb. 14 expressing “strong opposition” to the report’s references to China, saying it was full of “ignorance, bias and cold war thinking.
The Chinese embassy also said the report undermines bilateral relations and the feelings of the Chinese people toward the Estonian people, and asked the Estonian authorities to revise the report.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu rejected the Communist Embassy’s request.
Reinsalu was quoted by Estonian public radio (ERR) as saying, “The assessment of the Foreign Intelligence Service is a security assessment based on their own expertise. Of course, this does not mean that we will not develop bilateral cooperation with China from the point of view of common security and national security of both countries.”
Reinsalu added that the EU and NATO are discussing the growing influence of China (the Chinese Communist Party) in the world.
“We will certainly follow the developments closely. The Estonian government has also adopted its own China Policy principles,” he said.
Creating U.S.-European divisions is the main goal of the Chinese Communist Party
AFP reported that Estonia’s focus has long been on neighboring Russia, and in recent years the small European country has spoken increasingly openly about Chinese Communist infiltration.
In its annual report, Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said that in the face of growing confrontation with the West, “China’s (CCP) main goal is to create divisions between the U.S. and Europe” and that “China (CCP) understands very well that a divided Europe would be a weak adversary whose resistance to China (CCP) would not be as strong as that of the United States. It is unlikely to be as strong as the United States.”
Mikk Marran, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, said in the preface to the report that China’s (CCP) “activities raise new security issues every year.
Marran noted that “Sino-Russian cooperation has become closer, and the relationship is largely dominated by Beijing.”
Beijing’s 17+1 summit is a failure to divide China and Europe
Beijing has been active in the European hinterland for nine years since 2012, working to establish the so-called “17+1” mechanism with Central and Eastern European countries.
Estonia’s report comes just after Xi Jinping held an online meeting this month with officials from 17 Central and Eastern European countries, where he pledged to boost imports of goods from those countries to China. But Estonia and five other countries sent only ministers, not presidents or prime ministers, to the meeting as a way to snub Beijing.
Andrea Brinza, vice president of Romania’s Asia-Pacific Institute, told Voice of America that the Central and Eastern European countries have proven that they share common values with the United States and NATO. The six countries that snubbed Beijing this Time around, with no president or prime minister attending the summit, are all NATO members. In addition to Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, the three Baltic states are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Brindza said in an interview with the Voice of America, these governments are hoping to win the goodwill of the United States, the European Union and their own voters.
Calling the 17+1 basically a “zombie mechanism,” Bryza told the Voice of America that some countries are so frustrated that they want to pull out because China (the Communist Party of China) has not provided real investment or increased imports for years.
Gary Schmitt, a strategy fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA that at the government level, China’s (CCP) strategy has been relatively effective, causing some governments to put limited economic interests ahead of long-term ones. But a number of Chinese practices are increasingly causing public resentment internationally.
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