French Parliament report alleges growing Chinese interference

A parliamentary report on foreign interference in France, prepared following the demand of Marine Le Pen's far-right party, highlighted China's growing interference, referring to its methods that are becoming increasingly aggressive.

The parliamentary report published last week comes after five and a half months of work and hearings by the committee of inquiry into foreign interference in France. China "is resorting to increasingly aggressive and malicious manoeuvres", the report alleged.

China is now pursuing "a strategy that fuels the contestation of norms", relying on its diaspora and cultural network to challenge and undermine the Western order. China's interference is aimed in particular at controlling its image and its citizens, with a "war on public opinion". Its "aim is to degrade the model of liberal democracies to indirectly promote the political model of the PRC", according to the report.

The report said "the most serious threat today is the attack on scientific and technological heritage by Chinese interference", for which Beijing makes "extensive use of clandestine intelligence". Digital technology is a sector in which the threat to national sovereignty is significant.