Authors: Alexander Detev and Mina Kirkova
"It is a great honor for me to introduce you to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the People's Republic of… Republic of Bulgaria."
With this slip, Martin Karbowski begins his interview with Ambassador Dai Qingli on his YouTube channel. In the next 40 minutes, the two talk about the projects that the embassy is implementing in Bulgaria, about Beijing's desire to increase its "cooperation" with Sofia, about the country's history, as well as about "China's unique path of development", as Mr. Karbowski describes it. "We hope that the Bulgarian people will learn more about the history of the Taiwan issue and support the just cause of the Chinese people to oppose the separatist activities in Taiwan in order to realize their national unification", says Dai Qingli. "If we leave politics (…) I want to express my great respect for the technological progress in China", replies Karbovski.
Who are the conductors of Chinese influence in Bulgaria
"Our team, our channel wants to talk about China", Karbovski summarizes at the end of the interview. However, this is evident not only from this declaration of the presenter, but also from the content on his channel. In the series "Project: Unknown China" Sinologists, journalists, politicians from "Vazrazhdane", representatives of business and institutions tell Karbovski about the cultural features and economic successes of the communist state.
DV sent an inquiry to Martin Karbovski whether the project was implemented with the support of the Chinese embassy in Bulgaria or another institution connected to Beijing. By the time of publication of this text, no answer had been received.
The former long-time host of the program "Fatherly Front" is not alone. "Chinese influence in Bulgaria passes through the media - the column of "24 hours", individual reports on television, pro-Russian sites such as "Pogled.info" and journalists like Martin Karbovski", Rumena Filipova, chairwoman of the Institute for Global Analysis, which has been monitoring Chinese propaganda and presence in Bulgaria for years, told DV.
According to her, the topic of Chinese influence remains largely off the radar. And political parties are also responsible for this. "The platforms of the parties are mainly focused on domestic politics. Foreign policy issues are hardly touched upon, let alone China", she says. However, there are certain parties that are more covertly interested in the topic, becoming conduits of Chinese influence.
In July 2024, for example, representatives of the Chinese Communist Party visited Bulgaria at the invitation of the new leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. At "Positano" 20 they discussed with their Bulgarian colleagues "the possibilities for deepening cooperation between the two parties and their positions on various foreign policy and economic issues", the BSP boasted. A meeting with "Vazrazhdane" followed, and Kostadin Kostadinov posted a photo on social media in which he shook hands with Chen Zhou, the deputy minister of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Like Mr. Karbovski, other content creators are also spreading pro-Russian and pro-Chinese narratives in parallel. "As a trend, we observe how pro-Russian players are facilitating the entry of Chinese influence, while everyone else is neglecting the topic", adds Rumena Filipova.
The "Pogled.info" website republishes materials from the Chinese state media. Many pro-Chinese analyses are also published, adapted from Russian sources such as the "Strategic Culture Fund", which the Russian Foreign Ministry describes as its partner, and the propaganda website "Tsargrad". "Tsargrad" is owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who was banned from entering Bulgaria in 2019 for "a plan to change Bulgaria's geopolitical orientation", which included buying a television station and financing a political party.
"China's "Cognitive War"
Before the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, experts made the following distinction between Chinese and Russian propaganda: while the propaganda coming from the Kremlin was very aggressive and aimed primarily at undermining stability and trust in Western institutions, propaganda from Beijing mainly polished the image of the regime there. It creates a "positive image of China, promotes China's role in world trade and tries to present critical issues such as democracy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Uyghurs, Covid in a positive light or to keep them quiet", says Dr. Christopher Nering of the Institute for Cyber Intelligence in Frankfurt. "From 2022. "However, we have seen increasingly close cooperation between China and Russia in the field of propaganda, with both sides spreading the same narratives, especially with regard to Ukraine, and Chinese social media channels also pushing Russian content," adds the expert on disinformation and artificial intelligence.
"Globally, China is already acting more aggressively in official channels, through embassy social media, but also through coordinated online disinformation campaigns," explains Nering. "China is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence - automated but realistic-looking bots, deepfakes and AI content, influencers generated with AI - as an important tool for the so-called "cognitive warfare". It also includes data and user analysis, driven by AI, which helps to automatically deliver personalized messages to users in order to influence their thinking and perception."
According to expert estimates, China spends several billion a year on propaganda. A large part of them goes to the China Global Television Network (CGTN) and Radio China (CRI), which also maintains a page in Bulgarian. The Bulgarian editorial office was founded on April 17, 1974, said editor-in-chief Fanlei Xia in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio in 2018. She added that most of the employees in the editorial office are Chinese, and there are three Bulgarians. DW contacted the Bulgarian editorial office of Radio China with questions, but did not receive a response.
From the website of the Bulgarian editorial office of Radio China, we understand that in April, the general director of BNT Emil Koshlukov visited Beijing and signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Chinese media group. Koshlukov also gave an interview to a journalist from the Bulgarian editorial office of Radio China, in which he said that he wanted a more active exchange of content between him and BNT and even dreamed of filming a joint series.
Under the leadership of Emil Koshlukov, the partnership between BNT and the Bulgarian editorial office of Deutsche Welle was frozen.
The interview with Koshlukov was also published on Radio China's Facebook page. It is sponsored, which means that the Chinese state media pays to be distributed as a priority on the social network.
Radio China's Facebook page publishes dozens of times a day - videos, news and content intended specifically for Bulgaria. The Chinese state media sponsors a large part of its publications, as shown by a check on the Meta advertising platform. The transparency section that Facebook maintains for all pages on the platform notes that Radio China paid for advertising campaigns on Meta. However, a check on the Ad Library does not show any data. All the ads that Radio China pays for clearly do not fall into the category of "political and social issues and elections" that the platform monitors. However, it is noticeable that the posts collect almost no interactions, especially against the background of the large number of followers of the page - over 440,000 profiles follow Radio China. However, the posts rarely collect more than 100 interactions, which raises the question of how real the profiles that follow the page are.
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are required to label the content of media controlled by governments of countries. Thus, the content of Radio China on their official pages and channels on the platforms is also labeled. The content produced by Radio China, which can also be found on the website of the Bulgarian edition of the China Global Television Network (CGTN), is also included in several YouTube channels that are not directly affiliated with the Chinese state media. For example, all Radio China videos are uploaded to the platform through the channel "Journey to the East", where there is no indication of affiliation with the Chinese state. Other videos over the years have appeared on the platform and through the channel of "24 hours".
Content from Radio China has been reprinted by "24 hours" since 2020. DW sent an inquiry to the media outlet regarding the partnership between its publisher - Media Group Bulgaria - and Radio China, whether it has a financial dimension and how the content that is republished is controlled. By the time of publication of this text, no response had been received.
The "Journey to the East" channel also publishes videos from the "From China with Pavel" section. In it, Bulgarian journalist Pavel Galabov talks about his life in China, with the content produced entirely for a Bulgarian audience. Deutsche Welle sent Galabov questions about his cooperation with Radio China and how his stay in the country was arranged. By the time of publication of this text, no answer had been received.
The same channel also republishes videos from the "Pogled.info" studio on topics related to China.
"Beijing is investing billions of dollars to build an information ecosystem in which the propaganda of the People's Republic of China and disinformation can be popularized and become dominant," the US State Department wrote in a 2023 report. Washington also points out that Beijing's efforts include armies of online bots and trolls, legal actions against those who criticize Chinese companies and investments, as well as agreements with media outlets for sharing content.
"Confucius" Institutes and their role in Bulgaria
Chinese influence in Bulgaria also goes largely through the academic environment, explains expert Rumena Filipova. "Our research at the Institute for Global Analyses shows that the majority of Bulgarian state universities have varying degrees of ties with Chinese universities. Some of them are very problematic because they are connected to the organs of the Chinese Communist Party and military intelligence," Filipova commented. A study by the Central European Institute for Asian Studies on the academic relations of European countries with China shows that 110 different joint programs between Bulgarian higher education institutions and Chinese universities operate in Bulgaria.
Two Bulgarian universities also operate branches of the Chinese "Confucius" Institute - at Sofia University and Veliko Tarnovo University. Both institutes operate from Bulgarian universities, and not as external partners of educational institutions. In most cases, university education supported by the "Confucius" Institutes is related to the study of Chinese language, martial arts and preparation for international certification of language knowledge. The "Confucius" Institute in Sofia also organizes two exchange programs, its management told DV - a summer camp in Beijing for students studying Chinese, as well as a visit to the Chinese capital by a delegation of Bulgarian heads of educational institutions. According to Rumena Filipova, trips like these "create a certain worldview in our compatriots, who are presented with a distorted idea of what the country represents".
The "Confucius" Institute in Sofia, as well as the one at VTU, also work with primary and secondary schools throughout the country - both public and private, which assist in establishing Chinese language education.
Veliko Tarnovo University told DV that the funding they receive from "Confucius" "is spent entirely on the relevant projects under the Institute's activities and the university does not receive funding for other needs." VTU guarantees its academic independence with respect to the projects of the Chinese Institute through a majority of Bulgarian representatives on the Institute's board of directors, the university told DV.
While it works jointly with VTU and in practice as part of the Bulgarian university, the "Confucius" Institute also organizes an annual conference on "Diplomatic, Economic and Cultural Relations between China and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe". A collection of studies presented at the conference is published with it. In addition to discussions on linguistics and culture, there are also those that present the Chinese geopolitical perspective, often opposed to that of the "collective West". A regular author, for example, is Prof. Nako Stefanov - historian and analyst. A check in the Commercial Register shows that Prof. Nako Stefanov is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Confucius Institute" Foundation.
Stefanov also has a long political career, having been a candidate for deputy from various parties, including the PP "Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland", "Bulgarian Left Coalition", "Party of Bulgarian Communists" and PP KOY (Competence, Responsibility and Truth). Prof. Stefanov also has his own column on the website "Pogled.info". Among the scientific works presented at the annual conferences of the "Confucius" Institute are """The Celestial Empire" and "The Russian World" - Past, Present and Prospects", as well as "The United States and the "Collective West" against China: "Trade" and "Technological Wars" in the Second and Third Decades of the 21st Century".
Xi's New World Order
In 2023, shortly after being re-elected for a third term, Xi Jinping announced that China was working to "achieve modernization for all countries" and build a "shared future for humanity". For years, the leader of the communist state has been talking about a new world order, far from the understandings of liberal democracy. "China is trying to be the leader of this "democratic" world order, in which no one will dominate anyone and a new international order will be created," says Rumena Filipova. "And it will also include non-interference in the internal affairs of states - i.e. whether they are democratic or autocratic, it will not be subject to any international control mechanisms." The example of Hungary - China's largest partner in the EU - proves that even countries in the bloc are not immune to "Chinese infiltration, which undermines any drive for a common policy", the expert points out.