The European Union said Friday that its envoy to China made a mistake by allowing the country's foreign ministry to censor an opinion piece by EU ambassadors without first informing headquarters or member states, amid concern that the bloc might be bowing to political pressure from Beijing.
The op-ed by the EU's 27 ambassadors was published in the China Daily this week to mark the 45th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations.
But China's foreign ministry insisted it could only appear in the paper if a reference to the coronavirus originating in China was removed.
The EU's External Action Service -- essentially a sort of European foreign office said that its ambassador, Nicolas Chapuis, was reluctant to agree to the cut, but did so because he was under "time pressure."