Belt & Road in trouble, China opens a university in Hungary and bans Ghengis Khan in France
Hello, and welcome to China Influence Monitor, a collaboration between CEPA and Coda Story. I’m Edward Lucas, the curator of this weekly newsletter tracking how Chinese policy and influence is affecting politics, the economy, and alliances across Russia and into Europe -- and what that means for the world.
Culture wars
China’s thin-skinned approach to geography and history is notorious. But attempts to censor a French exhibition highlighting the empire-building Mongol leader Genghis Khan mark a new level of sensitivity — and incidentally highlights mounting repression of his descendants in Chinese-occupied inner (southern) Mongolia.
Why it matters The real frontline of China’s conflict with the West is not rows over trade, Huawei and the South China Sea. Beijing authorities see intellectual and academic freedoms taken for granted in free societies as potent threats.
China’s aim is to control all discussion of anything related to China, anywhere in the world — a sweeping ambition that Genghis Khan himself might have appreciated.