HAS Brussels, earned the nickname of “Mr. Revolving Door” (“Mr. Revolving Door”). The revolving door of Günther Oettinger, three times European Commissioner after a career in the ranks of the German CDU, Angela Merkel’s conservative party, and his conversion to lobbying were already causing rumours in the corridors of the European institutions. But, at the end of August, unrest arose when it appeared that the former commissioner had been hired by Shein, the Chinese giant of “ultra-fast” online fashion, very uncomfortable with the direction of European regulations.
The unease does not stem only from the cynicism of a former European Commissioner who, responsible from 2010 to 2019 for such important issues as energy, the digital economy and then the budget, is enriching himself by coming to denounce policies that he helped develop. The concern stems above all from the origin of Oettinger’s new employer: China, officially a “systemic rival” of the European Union and a fierce competitor, whose strategy of influence is in the crosshairs of all Western intelligence services.
To top it all off, there is a precedent, also German and infamous, that no one has forgotten: that of Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor (1998-2005) seduced by Vladimir Putin and the generous remuneration of Gazprom. Of course, Schröder was not the only European to succumb to the temptation of big Russian business; but, precisely, the experience of the Russian seduction operation brutally discredited by the invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, could suggest that the lesson had been learned in Berlin, Paris or Madrid. This is clearly not the case. Having fallen out of favour in Germany, the former social-democratic chancellor, despite his 80 years, still exercises his talents in China, where he sits, for example, on the advisory board of the China Investment Corporation.
The legend died out in Europe
“The Capture of European Elites by the Chinese Communist Party” [PCC] It is a real strategy, which was deployed with the promotion of the “new silk roads”. In the 2010s, recalls Abigaël Vasselier, a researcher at Berlin’s Merics, an institute specialising in the study of China. In Italy, for example, in 2019, Michele Geraci, undersecretary of state for economic development after having taught in China, served as a transmission belt for her government to sign a memorandum of understanding with Beijing, making Italy the only European country to join this Chinese economic expansion programme. Giorgia Meloni’s government denounced the memorandum of understanding at the end of 2023.
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