Russia in China’s Official Press: News Discourse “People’s Daily”

Authors

  • Lijun Guo School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University
  • Jiahui Zhang

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52575/2712-7451-2022-41-2-193-204

Keywords:

Russia, China, V. Putin, “People’s Daily”, news discourse, image of the country

Abstract

The theme of the representation of the image of Russia in the modern high-quality mass media of China as an indicator of the political relations between the two countries is discussed. The purpose of such a study is to identify the assessments of the partner country presented in the newspaper, which reflect the stand of the authorities. The materials of the news discourse of the People’s Daily in the period from 2018 to 2021 were studied, in particular, 15827 headlines of reports related to Russia. In this period China and Russia were subject to sanctions by the United States and European countries, and also fight the epidemic of coronavirus infection. These events have become an incentive to unite both countries in the face of a common danger. The study was conducted on the basis of a combination of methods of critical discourse analysis, which involves the study of the text in close connection with social practices, and corpus linguistics, which allows analysis on the basis of big data. It is noted that these methods make it possible to give an objective assessment of the attitude towards another country in the press by identifying the image that publications create. It has been established that in the newspaper “People’s Daily” Russia is presented as a strategic partner with which China is in good neighborly relations. Their guarantors are the leaders of both countries – Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. The Russian president is given a special place in the discourse studied: the newspaper creates the image of a strong leader interested in the development of his country and partnership with China, which inspires respect from the Chinese society. It is shown that the image of Russia, created in the news discourse of “People’s Daily”, is fundamentally different from the image of an aggressive country, which is created by the Western media. A significant place in publications about Russia is occupied by the topic of combating the pandemic, the problems of the dynamics of the spread of the virus, the development of a vaccine and the vaccination of the population are raised. The general impression of Russia, created in the news discourse of China’s official press of the authority, forms in the Chinese society an image of the neighbor as a reliable partner, with whom the PRC jointly counters global threats.

Acknowledgments. Research is accomplished with financial support of the Social Science Fund Foundation of China Grant №16CYY065 “Discourse Analysis of News Texts about China in Russian Mass Media”.

Author Biographies

Lijun Guo, School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University

Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Institute of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China

Jiahui Zhang

PhD student, Institute of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Shanghai University of Foreign Studies, Shanghai, China


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Published

2022-07-05

How to Cite

Guo, L., & Zhang, J. (2022). Russia in China’s Official Press: News Discourse “People’s Daily”. Issues in Journalism, Education, Linguistics, 41(2), 193-204. https://doi.org/10.52575/2712-7451-2022-41-2-193-204

Issue

Section

Journalism and public relations