The European Story of China in Africa: Examining the Token “Cautionary Tale”

Description

RESEARCH ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION AT:"Palgrave Handbook on China-Europe-Africa Relations".Right after the European Union launched its first Africa Strategy in December 2005, the question of China's presence and interest in the continent has been spilling into the media discourse over China's role, approach and agenda for Africa (Deutscher Budestag , 2007). Furthermore, as China's political activities in European countries increased during 2012-2019, parallels were drawn between Chinese-led regional multilateralism in Central and Eastern Europe (16+1), Africa (FOCAC), and Latin America (CCF), comparing the normative basis, institutionalization patterns, and the scope of cooperation (Jakóbowski, 2018) The narrative of China's behaviour in Africa was a cautionary tale for CEE in European media. The project aims to examine how the story of China’s presence on the African continent appears in the European media. Research questions include: what are the frames used? What are the emotions expressed? What is the reporting tone by media and/or country? Is it whole-of-continent or country specific? If the latter one is true, which countries take the lead? . Adapting mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology, the research is based in Frame analysis. Preliminary data is collected vis GDELT. The analysed EU-based media (in English) are chosen according to readership and influence on European scale, and preliminarily are: Politico, Euronews, Deutsche Welle, France 24. News agencies have been excluded due to low prevalence of distinguishable frames. Timeframe: Based on the assumption that the upsurge of meetings between China's FP actors, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, and African counterparts (Ashmore, 2022) following a quiet period during COVID-19, also leads to increased reporting on China-Africa relations in European media, the research timeframe is set for March 1, 2022-December 1, 2022. . [research still ongoing, results will be finalised before February 2023]. [research still ongoing, results will be finalised before February 2023]

Period	29 Mar 2023
Event title	RSU Research week 2023: PLACES
Event type	Conference
Conference number	3
Organiser	Rīga Stradiņš University
Location	Rīga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International