Global Times Hosts Dialogue in Brussels

On January 27, 2026, the Global Times (環球時報), a CCP-controlled tabloid founded in 1993 under People’s Daily (人民日報), the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, co-hosted a media and think-tank forum in Brussels titled “Global Dialogue – China-EU Resonance.” Co-organizers were the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics (對外經濟貿易大學) and the Brussel’s based but China-linked Institute for China-Europe Studies. The forum, framed around the 50th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic relations, brought together what the Global Times described as “dozens of guests” from Chinese and European think tanks, media outlets, and business communities. However, a full participant’s list cannot be found online. Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Fei Shengchao (費勝潮) and a representative of the Chinese Mission to the EU both delivered speeches conveying the standard CCP narrative that there are “no fundamental conflicts of interest” between China and the EU. This concept is routinely used by Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, despite real underlying differences over such issues as human rights concerns in China, the government’s policies in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and tensions in the Taiwan Strait. The forum also featured the release of a poll from the Global Times Institute, a research unit under the media outlet, that purported to show that people in the EU have confidence in future trade and are interested in high-tech and digital cooperation. The poll was reportedly conducted between October and November 2025 across 20 EU member states as well as inside China — with more than 16,000 respondents, according to the Global Times. Unlike professional surveys like those conducted by Pew Research, the questionnaire for the survey was not made public, and the Global Times Institute did not explain its methodology. Polls are highly politicized in China, where the CCP’s policy is to “guide” public opinion, not to measure it objectively.