On September 23, Civic IDEA’s report “Who is in charge of the post cold war world? Chinese influence in Academia, Media & CSOs, The case of Georgia” was featured in the article “China’s footprint in Georgia causes anxiety” published by Eurasianet.
Below you can find an extract from the article mentioning Civic IDEA and its chairperson Ms. Tinatin Khidasheli:
A report last year by the Tbilisi-based think tank Civic IDEA detailed the expansion in Sino-Georgian educational ties over the last decade, listing numerous Chinese-language programs and the many opportunities, often with generous financial backing, for Georgian students to live in China.
“Year after year, Chinese interest in Georgia grows and so does the scope and size of educational programs and cooperation in academia,” said the report, authored by former defense minister Tinatin Khidasheli. It called this part of “a full-scale Chinese Communist Party ideological operation,” that includes influence over the media, civil society, telecommunications infrastructure, and business.
Khidasheli told Eurasianet that Georgia risks becoming economically dependent on China and a pawn in a great power competition emerging between China and the West. Already Chinese companies are breaking local labor and environmental laws with impunity. Yet most Georgian pundits are unaware of China’s inroads, she cautioned, “heavily preoccupied” as they are with Russia.
For the full article, please visit: ?
https://eurasianet.org/chinas-footprint-in-georgia-causes-anxiety?fbclid=IwAR1Yh47-2lMFm_4-5fTH4lyZZ8T82sA-994Qv9y7G4Gmv8c-iXQQCzMbvng
