A new report from the Foreign Policy Institute shows that Chinese media reporting on Sweden has increased significantly in recent months. Above all, the interest is in Sweden’s NATO application and the alliance’s enlargement in Europe.
That Sweden chooses to abandon its freedom of alliance is a consequence of influence from the United States, it can be read in the Chinese media. According to the state news agency Nya Kina, the decision on a NATO application has been met with very harsh criticism from the Swedish people.
– It is said that there is much in the decision that does not follow how Sweden usually makes decisions in such matters, that it is not democratically rooted, says the report’s author Hillevi Pårup to Svenska Dagbladet.
According to the report, the Swedish and Finnish applications are seen as a provocation against Russia.
– I do not think that the intensified reporting in the media is due to China being surprised that Sweden wants to join NATO, they write this rather because it fits into the Chinese narrative about NATO, says Hillevi Pårup.