I. Goals

The goal of the research is to evaluate to what extent the EU deviates from the expected role in the eyes of Chinese and people around the Pacific Ocean and investigate what factors affect the differences, based on textual discourses drawn from the official news media of China and other countries, and public network fora through a Critical Discourse Analysis approach.

II. Background

Intuitively, if an investigation conducted, Europe and Europeans are more often associated with the remarkable terms like ‘long history’, ‘ancient Greek and Roman civilization’, ‘diversity of cultures and languages’, ‘music’, ‘arts’, ‘football’, ‘philosophy’, ‘science and technology’, ‘elegant’, ‘tidy, clean, tranquil’, ‘obedience to law’, ‘tolerance’ as proven by the European Integration and so on, as Chinese are required to study the course of World History in middle schools, they learn much more about Europe than Europeans do about China.

The positive image of Europe and Europeans in the eyes of Chinese was confirmed by a survey undertaken by Nottingham University a few years ago, which lasted three years and six big cities were investigated. Among the 3019 respondents, ranging from the age of 18 to 70, 74.1% and 77.6% have a very good impression on the EU and people in EU member states respectively, higher than Russians and Americans in percentage terms. Majority of the respondents believe that China-EU relations are friendlier than Sino-US relations and Sino-Japanese relations. Obviously, the EU possesses greater potential resources of attraction, also called soft power.

As early as 2003, the Chinese Government published China’s EU Policy Paper, the first of its kind, in which the image of the EU, its expected role and China-EU relations are depicted as follows:

‘The EU is a major force in the world’. ‘… and will play an increasingly important role in both regional and international affairs’.

‘There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and the EU and neither side poses a threat to the other’. ‘… mutual trust and mutual benefit cannot and will not be affected if the two sides address their disagreements in a spirit of equality and mutual respect’.

‘The common ground … far outweighs their disagreements. Both … stand for democracy in international relations…. Both are committed to combating international terrorism and promoting sustainable development through poverty elimination and environmental protection endeavours’.

‘Both China and the EU member states have a long history and splendid culture’. ‘The political, economic and cultural common understanding and interaction … offer a solid foundation for the continued growth of China-EU relations. To strengthen and enhance China-EU relations is an important component of China’s foreign policy’.

In June 2003, at the Thessaloniki Council in Greece, the EU approved “A Secure Europe in a Better World”. For the first time, an organization of twenty-five countries agreed to set up foreign policy objectives together. The opening premise of “A Secure Europe in a Better World” is the recognition that “the European Union is, like it or not, a global actor; it should be ready to share in the responsibility for global security.” The expected role of the EU is consistent with its assigned role.

After that, the establishment of a summit meeting system, the publication of policy papers from both sides, the deepening of political and human rights dialogues, the widening of sectoral dialogues, the development of a strategic partnership and the negotiation of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement etc --- all these mark the achievements obtained in EU-China relations. However, EU-China relations are hampered by problems as well, which reminds both the Europeans and the Chinese that it needs wisdom and efforts from both sides to further promote the development of bilateral relations.

The EU has been seen as a civilian power, the embodiment of soft power. Though it will not compete with the US in hard power, the EU aspires to be one of them. Without resolving its relationship with China, the EU cannot achieve its aims. The EU has the capacity to “get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments” since it possesses the three types of resources: the attractive culture, the political values and the policies, the problem is how the EU should be smarter in making best use of its soft power.

Internally, the EU should develop a distinctive ‘personality’ through the European Identity construction, which must be different from the other ‘polars’. Otherwise the EU will be overshadowed. The credibility of the EU as a strategic and important partner of China is regularly undermined by the tactical actions of individual large EU Member States. This greatly weakens the image of the EU in the eyes of Chinese.

Externally, trying to get to know more about China and Chinese people, more respect for China’s core national interests will win more respect from Chinese and increase the EU’s positive image. China is a large and complex nation in all its aspects. The EU does not have an in-depth understanding of modern China. The truth is that more unity and identity among Chinese whenever their motherland’s core interests are interfered and hampered, especially China will not accept any questioning of its territorial integrity or speeches, acts that harm China’s national unity and sovereignty. All EU policy towards China has to recognise this immovable fact.

III. Research Questions

The research will address the following questions:

1) In such a multi-polar world today, how the EU builds a positive image which is different from the US and exerts its role as expected?

2) In what circumstances the EU’s image is downgraded and in what cases its image is accentuated in the eyes of Chinese? What? When? And Why?

3) What factors, political, cultural or historical, influence the perceptions of Chinese about the EU as a civilian power?

4) To what extent have European norms and ideas been accepted, rejected or adapted in China ?

This research provides a comprehensive mechanism to assess the impact of EU in China and other countries around the Pacific Ocean. The research findings not only contribute to academic debate on EU international identity and foreign policy, but also provide a valuable input for the European policy-makers and public diplomacy specialists.

IV. Methodology

The nature of the project is multidisciplinary, which consolidates expertise in political science, European integration studies, media studies, image studies, and linguistic theories such as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Content Analysis.

The researcher will first conduct news analysis. Two official newspapers are monitored: a popular newspaper with the largest public circulation; and an English-language newspaper printed daily in China (largely read by national elites and expatriates). Then three network fora are also monitored for content on the European Union, where in China there are over 420 million netizens (Internet users) and their views about the EU expressed are real.

The methodology is deductive in its nature.

V. Reports of Consecutive Years

The image of the EU has been a focus of our research group. We have been tracking it for years. A few MA students majoring in European Studies under the supervision of Prof. WANG have been working on this topic and produced several papers and reports in the past few years.

As early as 2014, “The Image of EU in Chinese Media Agenda during the Debt Crisis: A Case Study of the People’s Daily”, a paper was produced by Ms Wang Xiaoting. The executive summary of the report is as follows:

With the evolvement of European integration and the development of China-EU relations, the EU has become a significant actor in the world, and the interactions between the EU and China are becoming more frequent. Under this circumstance, probing into the image of EU is of significance. According to a report, the Chinese mainly get information about the EU through newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet and other news media. Since most people could not experience European life by themselves, the mass media acts as a bridge connecting the Europe and the Chinese.

The Agenda Setting Theory proposes that the media tell people what to think about and how to think. The media has the ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda through describing the map that is drawn for the people. Since the year of 2009, the EU has been suffering from the debt crisis. Whether the crisis affected media agenda, and what kind of EU image did the mass media create?

By analyzing the EU news reports between 2009 and 2013 in the People’s Daily, which is one of the most representative and authoritative newspapers in China, the present study aims to investigate the EU news agenda during the debt crisis. The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods. After analyzing the number, place, length, topics and evaluation of EU news reports, the EU media image created by the People’s Daily is concluded. The conclusions are as follows:

1. The European Debt Crisis became the main media agenda in the EU reports of People’s Daily;

2. The EU news frame changed accordingly

3. During the crisis, People’s Daily created the EU image as following:

(1) The EU’s economic image gained much visibility during the crisis;

(2) The EU is an important partner with China, and it has many advantages over China in bilateral trade;

(3) The EU is imposing much influence in world affairs, and its diplomatic policy belongs to the “West”;

(4) The European society is not promising because of the crisis

(5) The EU takes leading positing in science and education

4. Social ideology and codes the news agency also affects the agenda

Key words: EU; media image; agenda setting; People’s Daily

During 2016-2017, another paper entitled “The Influences of Female Political Participation on European Union Public Diplomacy” was produced by Zhong Sulian. Europe is the birthplace of feminism. European women’s consciousness of political participation germinated in early time and was becoming stronger and stronger. Being an economic and political integration organization that includes 28 member states, European Union owns a long history of female political participation. So far, the EU has put forward some laws that protects female political participation as well as seizes gender equality. Meanwhile, the EU promises that gender perspective will be implanted in all policies. In the post-modern international relations, national competition starts to focus on the competition of soft power. In the process of EU’s carrying out the public diplomacy as well as establishing its peace-loving national image, the EU is in need of feminine traits, such as tolerance, fraternity, democracy, freedom, patience, etc. Allowing more females to take part in political decision-making contributes to the public diplomacy’s development and thus makes it possible for people of other countries to approve and accept that EU is a peace-loving, democratic and open integration organization with diversity and unity, which results in EU’s achieving more discourse power globally.

Key words: European Union, female political participation, public diplomacy, national image

Since the year 2016 onwards, Brexit, immigrants, populism and other problems challenged the survival of the European Union; in 2020, during the COVID-19, the actions of the EU have made several member states unsatisfied. The image of the EU was greatly influenced and the EU has attempted to do its utmost to reshape its image.