Presidential elections | In Svenska Yle's exam, China's threat images were discussed – Haavisto brought up Stubb's old statement

Svenska Ylen in the presidential election exam candidates were given space to discuss their views on China.

Voter association candidate supported by the Greens Pekka Haavisto tried to appear more as a China-critical candidate, Svenska Yle states in his story. He challenged his opponent, the coalition by Alexander Stubb almost immediately after the exam starts:

“I want to remind you, Alexander, that five years ago you wrote 'goodbye USA, welcome China'. You said that China will become a model country of openness and market economy. In the current situation, it looks blue-eyed”.

Stubb seemed prepared for the onslaught:

“You refer to the Dagens Industri article. It was written immediately after Donald Trump had been elected president and Xi Jinping had spoken in Davos about climate change and multilateral organizations. I wanted to spark a discussion about the balance of power, which is now changing”.

Haavisto also raised other concerns. According to him, the sabotage of the Baltic connector pipeline and the surveillance of citizens by the Chinese state both show that the West must not be naive with China.

Stubb said he agreed with the threatening images.

“We want digital democracy, China wants digital dictatorship,” Stubb replied.

Each the defense minister said that he was opposed to the candidates in the exam Antti Häkkänen (kok) presented the idea that leaving the reserve should be prevented.

Stubb announced that he does not agree with Häkkänen. According to him, the resignation of reservists is not a problem because the will to defend is so high in Finland.

Haavisto took a tougher stance. He said he believed that Häkkänen's statement was “unfortunate” in terms of Finland's defense. According to Haavisto, the matter should have been discussed in the Diet committee before the Minister of Defense takes the matter forward.