Yeah, this far-right AfD which is heavily supported by China and Russia. And another point is that attacks by hackers with ties to the Russian state also contributed to the drop in Germany.

First, Chinese retail platforms like Temu, Shein, AliExpress and others deploy their own supply chains. Only Shein recently announced it would open up its sweatshops to other businesses, but so far this didn’t happen afaik.

And, more importantly, local European retailers would immediately be shut down by the authorities if they sold the toxic and dangerous stuff sold on these Chinese platforms. They face much stricter regulations regarding consumer (and worker) protections than in China, which is one reason why they are more expansive.

What was the reason for Germany’s 3-point drop in its internet freedom score according to the report cited in the linked news article?

To provide a bit more content on the study by Freedom House a brief summary:

• In Germany, factors including criminal prosecutions for memes about politicians, increased self-censorship due in part to threats from far-right actors, and attacks by hackers with ties to the Russian state contributed to a 3-point drop in the country’s internet freedom score.
• Globally, the internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. Kenya (−6), Venezuela (−4), and Georgia (−4) experienced the year’s most severe declines on the report’s 100-point scale. Bangladesh (+5) earned the year’s strongest improvement.
• China and Myanmar, each with a total score of 9, remained the world’s worst environments for internet freedom.
• Iceland (94) held its place as the freest online environment, followed by Estonia (91), falling scores also for Serbia and Nicaragua.

[Edit to include the link.]

@Anonymaus@feddit.org

Did you read the report? This is an absurdly weird framing.

As an addition:

European partners criticize Spain’s relationship with China as the Kings dine with Xi Jinping

Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands have shown their concerns towards the Asian country, an attitude and positioning that sharply contrasts with Spain’s approach

… “The Italian Minister of Economy, Giorgetti, already called on the European Union to adopt a united stance against China to curb the threat to our industry. A similar sentiment exists in Germany, where the government coalition is taking the lead in reviewing the trade policy between China and Germany. The Netherlands has made a decision regarding Nexperia, and France is considering measures against Shein,” these same sources elaborate …

Regarding the case of Shein, French authorities ordered the inspection of up to 200,000 packages from the company last week to check for possible violations of regulations, a measure intertwined with the Paris Prosecutor’s decision to initiate an investigation for “dissemination of images or representations of minors of a pornographic nature” affecting this same company, as well as the Chinese platforms AliExpress and Temu …

The European Commission prefers not to comment at this time. In the past, they were very critical of Pedro Sánchez’s government, especially when the Prime Minister visited China and requested not to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars during EU-China negotiations …

Daimler Buses enthusiastically stressed in late 2024 as being the “first bus manufacturer in Europe to present a bus that is compatible with over-the-air updates“

Yes, but Daimler must not report to the Chinese Communist Party as its rivals from China do, right?

That aside, the risks of “over-the-air-updates” outweigh the convenience.

Spain pays a high price for this so-called “friendship”, right?

Spain’s goods imports from China amounted to 45 billion euros ($52.48 billion) in 2024 while it exported just 7.5 billion euros, according to Spain’s state trade agency ICEX.

But I guess the title aligns with OP’s desired spin as usual.

This nltimes./nl publishes exclusively AI-generated content under sensationalist headlines.

Yeah, we see where such surveillance ends when we look to China.

We could all hope that China would lead the world in climate change as the country is the world’s biggest polluter (with coal consumption still on the rise as I wrote just in another thread).

However, China’s is far away of any leadership when it comes to reduce carbon emission.

The scientists from the Climate Actions Tracker call China’s recent announcement to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035 as ‘disappointing’ as China - given the country’s size and economy - would need to cut emissions by around 30% for the world to be on track to the Paris goal.

According to the scientists, no country is on track to Paris, but while the EU and Brazil’s climate actions are insufficient, China and India’s are considered highly insufficient.

So it doesn’t look like leadership.

That leads the UK in the wrong direction.

Contrary to that, the EU is set to ban Chinese universities from half of Horizon Europe, including health care and defense research in the 2026-27 research programme. Here is a paywalled report on it or the original EU Horizon draft paper (opens pdf) stating that, “Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions in any capacity.”

In 2024, Spain exported USD 7.7 billion to China, while Spain imported USD 46.6 billion from China (according to the Comtrade database). This resulted in a trade deficit of USD 39.9 billion, slightly higher that in 2023 and the highest in Spain’s trade history with China.

Beijing apparently applies the same playbook with Spain as with all other countries.

What does Madrid strengthen?