DISINFO: The EU should admit that the US is its sovereign
SUMMARY
After a meeting of the EU leaders in Brussels on July 12, in which they decided to approve a new strategy to counter China’s One Belt One Road Initiative, Chinese users berated that Europe is conducted by the US. “Wouldn’t it be easier if the EU simply admitted that the US is its sovereign?”, they asked in the comments section of an article. This point of view expresses the opinion of Chinese internet users that the EU opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative is due to Washington’s influence.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Europe’s lack of sovereignty and its alleged submission to the US. This disinformation message claiming that an isolated comment expresses the opinion of all Chinese users is fallacious.
Contrary to these allegations, the EU’s decision to approve the Globally Connected Europe strategy is not due to US influence but goes in line with the EU’s strategic autonomy plans. More broadly, the European Union is a sovereign entity created by the voluntary initiative of European nations and it has its own, independent foreign policy, while the US has no say in its decisions.
See other examples in our database, such as claims that the EU announced its submissiveness to Joe Biden’s new US government, that Europe is in fact a colony of the United States, that the US has militarily occupied Europe to encircle Russia or that European states are vassals of the US.