Executive summary:
The European Union (EU) confronts a profound and escalating challenge to its democratic and information integrity from Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), particularly emanating from China. Since around 2020, China’s FIMI activities in Europe have grown in scale and sophistication, moving beyond traditional propaganda tools by blending digital tactics with economic coercion to influence public opinion and policy. These activities use coordinated social media operations, covert online networks, and state-controlled media partnerships to amplify pro-Beijing narratives and suppress criticism, often backed by threats of economic coercion.
The EU’s current response, a patchwork of regulatory measures and voluntary platforms (e.g. the Digital Services Act and the Code of Practice on Disinformation), remains fragmented across institutions and too reactive to emerging threats. This inconsistent framework leaves Europe vulnerable to coordinated influence operations that can erode trust in democratic institutions and processes.
This brief argues the imperative for the EU is clear: it must transition from a collection of disparate initiatives to a whole-of-EU integrated, proactive and dynamic policy framework that treats FIMI as a critical security challenge by linking information security with economic security to bolster enforcement of tools to counter China’s FIMI. This integration is necessary because the synergistic combination of FIMI and economic coercion creates a ‘grey zone’ threat, which exploits the seams between current regulatory silos. A coordinated, hybrid response is essential to pre-emptively disrupt these cross-domain attacks.
Policy recommendations:
- Enforce and Strengthen Digital Regulations: Mandate stricter compliance with the Digital Services Act and the EU Code of Practice, penalising platforms that fail to curb coordinated disinformation.
- Create a China-FIMI Coordination Task Force: Establish a cross-institutional body to unify intelligence across the 27 intelligence services, share threat data, and synchronise EU member states’ responses to Chinese influence operations.
- Integrate Economic and Information Security: Develop a unified EU framework where economic vulnerabilities (e.g. trade dependencies) and information threats are addressed together, reducing opportunities for Beijing’s coercion.
- Invest in Societal Resilience: Multiply targeted media literacy and ‘pre-bunking’ campaigns to inoculate key demographics against AI-driven disinformation, and support independent journalism and public broadcasters to counter foreign propaganda.
Stay tuned with us by reading more: ReConnect China Policy Brief 27-From Fragmentation to Integration