According to a study by a Swiss scholar, China’s (CCP) unification and influence operations in Switzerland are more sophisticated than many people can imagine, and are often packaged in “depoliticized” packages. According to the study, ignorance of such operations can lead to being co-opted and used without realizing it, and ignorance and naiveté are the most frightening.
The 69-page report, written by Ralph Weber, a researcher at Sinopsis, a leading Czech think tank based in Switzerland, is entitled “Unified message, rhizomatic delivery. The 69-page report, titled “Unified message, rhizomatic delivery,” analyzes China’s (CCP) influence operations and united front activities in Switzerland. Central News Agency obtained the full report exclusively before it went online.
In the report, Weber, a professor at the University of Basel, says that the Chinese Communist Party’s united front and influence operations in Switzerland cover almost all non-Chinese nationals with links to China. Each individual may be a part of China’s unification or influence operations, consciously or unconsciously, and while playing an active role, may also be a target of the operations.
He noted that in a free and democratic society, individuals are certainly free to express their positive views on the CCP and China, businessmen are free to pursue cooperation with Chinese partners, and any public or private entity is free to adopt different attitudes and strategies toward the CCP and China, depending on the issue or specific interests.
However, Weber emphasized that “ignorance” and “naiveté” are the most frightening. He pointed out that ignorance of the various operations will run the risk of being co-opted and used without knowing it, and one’s “free choice” may actually be the result set or expected by the other side.
Weber pointed out that since China (CCP) bets a lot of resources on influence operations, individuals should not presume that they already “know enough” or “don’t care about themselves. For example, if one believes the Chinese side’s claim that commerce, culture and technology are “apolitical” and “must be depoliticized,” one can easily be “victimized by politics.
In November, Aktuálně, a major Czech media outlet, published an investigative report revealing that individuals involved in Chinese (Chinese) influence operations in Switzerland had tried to discredit Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil, and that Weber had helped Aktuálně with the report.
According to reports, Swiss consultants and news platforms associated with groups such as the Chinese Association of Hometowns, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification provided “Current Affairs” with so-called “insider information” that Vystrčil had received $4 million from Taiwan, which led to the “historic” trip to Taiwan in late August. The “historic visit” to Taiwan at the end of August. Vitterich has refuted the claims.
In his research report, Weber pointed out that Michael Winkler, the executive director of Swiss consultancy RefinSol, and his assistant Robert J. Mojzes, who had actively “broken the news” to Current Affairs, also run the company. Mojzes, who also runs the bilingual EurAsia Info, has written commentaries praising Communist Party President Xi Jinping and his “One Belt, One Road” and other policies.
According to Weber’s investigation, Winkler is married to Zhu Ailian from Jiangxi Province, China; the official website of the Eurasia Times was briefly shut down after the smear campaign against Vetzi came to light.
According to the investigation, in 2017, the European Jiangxi Hometown Association and the European Jiangxi Chamber of Commerce were established in Zurich, Switzerland, with their offices located at the same address as the EurAsia Info Group headed by Zhu Ailian, who was re-elected president of the European Jiangxi Chamber of Commerce last year and merged the hometown association into the Chamber.
She is also the CEO of Eurasia Times, the Treasurer of RefinSol Consulting, and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Association of Chinese Language Mass Media (1998) and the International Federation of Chinese Journalists (2016). He also serves on the Board of Directors of the World Association of Chinese Mass Media (1998) and the International Federation of Chinese Journalists (2016). Both affiliated “media” organizations emphasize their “political independence,” but there are indications that Zhu Ailian is working for the Chinese Communist regime overseas.
In addition to her husband’s provision of false information to the Czech media, last year Zhu Ailian, through her directorship of both media associations, visited the Beijing-based All-China Journalists Association (ACJA), which is under the leadership of the CCP’s Propaganda Department; the ACJA has been cooperating with the media organizations of which Zhu Ailian is a director since 1999, and is the main counterpart of such “overseas media” organizations in China.
In interviews with local and overseas media, Zhu has said that European countries need initiatives like the Belt and Road to promote peace and economic development; her goal is to “tell good stories about China” and to do “media diplomacy”.
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