EU agreed to Chinese censorship over coronavirus origins

The European Union agreed to Chinese censorship of a public letter by its ambassadors that removed any mention of the fact the coronavirus pandemic originated in China, it has emerged. The EU’s foreign affairs service agreed to cut out a reference to the “outbreak of the coronavirus in China” as a reason for a cancelled EU-China summit in the letter, which was published in the state-run China Daily newspaper. The European External Action Service (EEAS) excised the reference after coming under pressure from China’s foreign ministry. Two weeks ago, the EEAS was forced to deny it had bowed to Beijing by watering down language in a report accusing China of a campaign of disinformation about the virus. It was revealed EU officials softened some of the language condemning China after repeated calls by Chinese officials. “It is of course regrettable to see that the sentence about the spread of the virus has been edited,” said Nicolas Chapuis, the EU’s ambassador to China, who co-signed the opinion piece with the 27 ambassadors to China of the bloc’s member states.