Borrowed Mouths and Laundered Messages: China’s Influence Playbook in Europe
Chinese foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) in Europe is growing – and becoming harder to detect. Drawing on over a decade of research into Chinese influence operations in Central and Eastern Europe, this paper identifies a coherent and evolving FIMI playbook that Beijing is deploying across the continent. While crude, explicitly branded propaganda has not disappeared, it is now increasingly complemented by subtler attribution-blurring techniques: "borrowing mouths" of local influencers and intermediaries to lend domestic credibility to Beijing-linked narratives; "bait and switch" strategies that build trusted channels before pushing strategic messaging; "laundering" of content through alternative media until it appears locally produced; "cloaking" that disguises Chinese sponsorship from the outset; and "amplification" of ideologically polarised domestic voices.