Study On The Construction Of China's National Image In Chinese Domestic Media

Thirty years of economic reforms have helped China open itself to the world; however this process has not always been smooth and has met some difficulties on the way. Although China insists on a "peaceful rise", many countries still regard China as a potential "threat", either politically, militarily and even economically. At the same time China has become not only a major trade partner to numerous countries, but also an investment destination of many foreign corporations. This duality of relationship has led to the international image of China being increasingly complex. Considering this, the purpose of this investigation is to further study an alternative side of the Chinese national image:its self-image. In order to have a better understanding of how the Chinese media sees China's international role in the 21st century, this study is an analysis one of the national newspapers that focuses on international affairs, namely, the Global Times. Through an analysis of the articles published by this newspaper during the years 2008-2009, and taking into consideration the many aspects that interest foreign scholars, this study has four parts:one which focuses on the debate inside the newspaper about Chinese international image; a second which focuses on the influence of the Human Rights problem and the Chinese national image; a third which focuses on the influence of the Democracy problem and the Chinese national image; and a fourth and last aspect which focuses on the image of the People of China portrayed by the Global Times. After a detailed analysis of the Global Times, we can affirm that most of the Chinese and foreign scholars agree that the improvement of the Chinese national image depends on the interaction of three factors:the quality of Chinese people, the international exchange and the right of speech in China within the international sphere.