The editing of this year’s report has been led by the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’, with editorial review provided from Ifri, the Elcano Royal Institute, the Institute of International Economic Relations (Greece), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House in the UK), the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) and the Central European In. [...] In Austria, despite the country’s accession to the BRI, a lack of public interest and close connections with the political elite paint a similar picture for China: the absence of a public debate and a strategy on China facilitates the promotion of Beijing’s positions. [...] In 2015, then Austrian President Heinz Fischer participated in the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between Huawei and two Austrian universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen).30 Furthermore, in 2019, the awarding ceremony was held in Vienna’s townhall in the presence of both Vienna’s mayor and the Chinese ambassador to Austria. [...] As such, China’s likeability is dwindling, much to the frustration of current Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Feng Tie, who, at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Denmark in spring 2020, gave several public interviews in which he lamented the negative publicity that China receives in the Danish media.79 China’s approach to soft power promotion in Denmark The arrival in April 20. [...] With respect, first, to perceptions of China among the Danish population, there are only a few available 84 See the homepage of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark, ‘Culture and Arts’, .
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