For decades, China fooled the world into believing it was merely another nation looking to embrace economic partnerships and fuel a rising standard of living. But recently, the Chinese Communist Party’s true colors have emerged. While many in the United States now openly acknowledge the economic vulnerabilities and security risks emanating from China, Europe is slowly awakening to these pressing threats.

Look no further than electric vehicles. For years, Europe has been a global leader in electric vehicle production. China recently started chipping away at the European market, with China-owned MG launching electric cars in Europe following Chinese automaker BYD’s European expansion. Their efforts have been successful: Chinese electric vehicle shipments to Europe have increased 361% since 2021—and 112% in the first seven months of 2023. While some consumers may believe China is just outcompeting European automakers, China’s intentions are no secret.

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Backed by heavy subsidies, China’s state-backed auto companies can control domestic markets within China, restrict outside competition, and flood global markets with cheap vehicles to eliminate competition. Such practices violate free market principles. Rather than let the free market determine which electric vehicles are best, Chinese vehicle prices are artificially depressed to corner the market. As American auto manufacturers learned, Chinese production can crater an industry, and European automakers could be next. Fortunately, the European Commission is now investigating China’s manipulative electric vehicle approach.

While China’s predatory electric vehicle practices are relatively new, China has undermined free societies for years. For example, China was initially successful in encouraging European governments to use telecommunication products, such as 5G infrastructure, from Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE. Mirroring their strategic blunder of Russian energy dependence, Europeans ignored the national security risk of Chinese telecommunications: handing the Chinese Communist Party access to critical infrastructure, despite the fact that the FBI assessed that Huawei equipment could pierce secure defense networks.

The reason many European nations initially chose Chinese firms for their 5G buildouts was because the bids came in artificially low due to state support. After years of intense pushback and warnings from the United States, nearly one dozen European countries have banned or severely limited the operations of Chinese telecommunications companies.

As in the U.S., China has also infiltrated European universities. In the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament were informed that academics were bribed to “not criticize the Chinese regime.” Between 2017 and 2023, 46 British universities received at least £122 million from Chinese sources. Alarmingly, 40% of the funding for Confucius Institutes on U.K. campuses came from Chinese military industrial complex companies. Huawei Technologies alone funded between £27 million and £38 million, representing “between 22 per cent and 24 per cent of all Chinese funding.”

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Chinese electric vehicle dumping, telecommunications threats, and academic malfeasance are pernicious, but they’re far from the only examples of the Chinese Communist Party’s menace. Whether it is China’s genocide against the Uyghur population in Xinjiang or its support for Russia’s and Hamas’s brutal acts of warfare, the Chinese Communist Party is a direct threat to free societies everywhere. Europe can no longer ignore that.

One immediate step free nations should take is to expose China’s lack of transparency. While the Chinese Communist Party will stop at nothing to conceal its malign activity, free societies should utilize their free press and academic institutions to shed light on China’s true conduct. For example, the Czech Republic-based MapInfluenCE project has tracked China’s influence strategies in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. Similar projects would educate policymakers on the threat China poses and provide the necessary data for policy formation to successfully counter China’s malign activities.

The United States and China are locked in a New Cold War that directly concerns Europe. Of course, Europe has observed the dangers a Cold War brings firsthand. To prevail against the greatest adversary since the Soviet Union, free societies around the world, especially those in Europe, must first expose the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party and then move decisively to counter them.