China announces Hong Kong in Today's News - "Propaganda"

Since early summer, the world's eyes have been directed at Hong Kong as a result of the massive and violent protests in progress. At the same time, relations between China and Sweden have been strained throughout the year due to a number of incidents.

In connection with Almedalen, it was clear that the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sweden has initiated a collaboration with the newly launched Swedish PR agency Scandhof. And now Chinese authorities have bought a full-page ad in Dagens Nyheter where they want to give their picture of the protest movement.

The ad, in which the People's Republic of China's Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, states as the sender, states, among other things, that the Chinese state is "determined to reach a peaceful, sensible and reasonable solution".

“What you read, see, hear - or share in social media - is just part of a complex social, economic and political puzzle. A puzzle we will solve on our own ”says the ad.

Today's News now receives harsh criticism for having sold advertising space to Chinese authorities. The author and Chinese connoisseur Ola Wong calls the ad "remarkable".

- It is an advertisement with senders from a Communist party who wants to stop the democracy movement. And that DN, with its value base, gives this kind of space - I hardly think it would have done if Putin had wanted to advertise about Ukraine.

Journalist Jojje Olsson, who lives in Taiwan, has been monitoring China for several years. He says he has seen the same ad before, though in English.

- First of all, I wonder how they thought when they chose to publish Chinese propaganda in light of all the threats that the Chinese embassy has issued to Swedish media and journalists recently. How have you discussed on Dagens Nyheter about this publication, and who have been involved in the decision to accept Chinese money to publish lies about these important democracy protests ?, he says and continues:

- I also wonder if Dagens Nyheter would consider publishing an article paid for by the Venezuelan regime to spread lies about the protest movement there, or by Russian authorities to throw protesters and activists in Russia. For this ad is exactly the same.

According to Jojje Olsson, the text contains several lies that may be contradicted. A direct consequence of this being an advertisement and not a journalistic article.

- China's government spends billions of dollars each year to propagate its propaganda via Western media. These are resources that the protest movement in Hong Kong, or for the rest of the regime's opponents, does not have available. Then it becomes problematic, for example, when the Hong Kong police use force to quell the protests, while at the same time, in paid propaganda, the protesters point to the only violent party.

As late as last summer, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce hired a public relations agency in Sweden and invested heavily in Almedalen. Why is this PR offensive coming now?

- It is not necessarily related. The general public relations campaign has to do with factors such as the personal ambitions of the Chinese ambassador and the kidnapped Swedish publisher Gui Minhai. The advertisement published by Dagens Nyheter today has also appeared with similar image and text in English in foreign media, suggesting that it is an international propaganda campaign about the protests in Hong Kong, which is an extremely troublesome issue for China's regime .

- With this in mind, Dagens Nyheter's publication may be even more remarkable.

The cultural news is looking for Dagens Nyheter's editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski and the Chinese Embassy in Sweden for a comment.