Wily Washington ropes EU into its ruses: China Daily editorial

To those who live on a steady diet of Hollywood bubble gum and who are gullible enough to believe everything they read or hear about evil regimes intent on taking over the world, it must seem like Brussels is the new Berlin — a hotbed of intrigue and espionage.

At least that is what the European External Action Service would have them believe, according to a report in Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Despite the fact that it apparently already has the capacity to listen in to everything that is said through backdoors supposedly installed in cellphones, computers, washing machines or anything else that has been made in China, it seems China still needs to give lodging to around 250 spies in its embassy and give them expenses so that they can surreptitiously dine in the same restaurants as European diplomats and military officials in the hope these powerful personages will inadvertently let slip some juicy nugget of information after a glass too many of Chablis.

The claims of the EEAS, and those made by the Lithuanian intelligence and security services against the Chinese telecommunications leader Huawei, also last week, are the latest in a chorus of allegations against China and the Chinese company being orchestrated by the United States.

This time the latest groundless accusations came after US officials toured EU capitals urging European governments not to use Huawei technology and equipment for next generation telecommunications infrastructure, and at a time when the EEAS is trying to keep the US sweet on NATO after Washington questioned its worth to the US.

One only has to look at how counterintuitive it would be for China to sabotage its sound cooperation with its European partners — and the economic benefits it reaps from those good relations — given the increasing pressure the US is applying in their trade conflict to appreciate how ridiculous these accusations are.

Indeed it is the trade dispute and competition between the world's two largest economies that explains why such reports have emerged now — The US is seeking whatever leverage it can to exert pressure on China, using its European allies in this way is just a matter of habit.

Some politicians in both the US and EU countries may consider the scaremongering about China as ideologically necessary since China's rise as a communist country is the last thing they want to see. However, in doing so they have to turn a blind eye to the fact that China wants and needs a peaceful environment for its economic development and social progress.

European politicians should realize that it will do their countries no good to unquestioningly follow Washington's lead. Doing so only plays into the hands of the US, which would be happy to get what it wants from a divided EU and the disintegration of the EU-China partnership.