LobbyControl: China's Big Tech strengthens its troops in Brussels and Berlin

Chinese tech companies are currently stepping up their efforts to enter the European market. At the same time, the companies are also expanding their efforts to influence politics in Brussels and Berlin, according to a report published on Monday by the organization LobbyControl. The report speaks of an "opaque lobbying network".

According to the report, Huawei and TikTok alone now spend 6.39 million euros per year on lobbying in the EU and Germany. But Alibaba is now also making its presence felt. Its services Aliexpress and Alipay were sponsors of the European Football Championship 2024 in Germany and appeared in numerous advertising banners for the major sporting event.

Huawei, TikTok and Alibaba

Huawei can already be considered an old lobbying hand. According to the analysis, the network equipment provider has spent around 2 to 3 million euros per year on political lobbying in Brussels since 2012. The company has 11 full-time lobbying positions in the EU. The capital city office in Berlin has also existed since 2012 with a budget of around 2.9 million euros.

TikTok only entered the EU Transparency Register in 2019. While the video platform spent around 400,000 euros on lobbying in Brussels in 2019, the most recent figure was 1.25 million euros. The company employs five full-time lobbyists there, who mainly work on platform legislation such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). In Germany, the company spends 200,000 euros and three full-time positions on influencing politics.

TikTok also relies on advertising campaigns. According to LobbyControl, the ByteDance subsidiary has placed image campaigns worth over EUR 910,000 in newspapers and magazines in Germany alone since January 2023. The portal was also a sponsor of the re:publica internet conference in 2024 and had a stand with various events on site.

Friendship associations and China bridges

To improve their image in the political arena, Huawei and TikTok worked together with think tanks in Brussels. The companies did not disclose some of their connections. They also relied on special lobby agencies such as Brunswick and FTI Consulting.

All companies from the Middle Kingdom could also rely on "always having the Chinese Communist Party and its extended arms on the ground at their side". The embassies in Berlin and Brussels play an important role in this.

Groups of members of parliament and so-called Chinese friendship associations were also involved. In Berlin, the China Bridge, co-founded by Huawei's chief lobbyist Carsten Senz, stands out as a lobby forum for Chinese tech companies.

LobbyControl currently lists the expenditure of Alibaba and Tencent ("WeChat"), which amounted to around one million euros in Brussels and 120,000 euros in Berlin, as a distant second. According to the German and European lobby registers, the Chinese search engine provider Baidu is a blank slate.

Compared to the particularly "aggressive" political influence of Big Tech from the USA, this is all still manageable, according to the conclusion of LobbyControl: Google, Amazon and Meta alone are currently spending a total of 19.5 million euros annually in Brussels. Nevertheless, Huawei & Co. are "increasingly active and extremely influential".

(olb)