In France, as in most Western democracies, China is waging a clandestine and merciless war to become the world’s leading military and economic power. Through a combination of industrial espionage, technology theft and the establishment of networks of influence abroad, they hope to achieve this by 2049 – the centenary of the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party’s accession to power. It’s estimated that China’s actions have already caused billions of euros worth of damage to Western economies.
Exceptionally, a former top Airbus executive recounts how China imported and then concealed an Airbus A320 so that it could be dismantled and copied. Other managers describe how their work was stolen and copied, while the director of Europe’s Galileo space program reveals Beijing’s ploy to neutralise France’s satellite positioning system.
To ensure its dominance on the battlefield, Beijing has recruited foreign fighter pilots, offering them enormous salaries in exchange for very little work. Once recruited, these pilots are pressured to recruit their colleagues. Remarkably, the French counter-espionage services describe how they combat leaks within our armies. Even Hollywood is pressured to reinforce Chinese soft power; maps in the recent Barbie film, among others, showed the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan as belonging to China.
But China doesn’t like people taking too close an interest in its manoeuvres. So, to silence its critics, it doesn’t hesitate to carry out special operations on foreign soil. In the middle of Paris, a Uyghur dissident was the victim of a kidnapping attempt. We tracked down the Chinese officials involved.
Secret agents, commando operations and state scandals kept under wraps: for numerous months, we have been investigating how Chinese power operates abroad to try to make China the world’s leading power.