Sino—africa Trade Relations And China’s National Image Building In Western Media’s Perspective

China and Africa have been in a firm relationship for many years. As the21stcenturybegins, the economy and trade contact between China and countries in Africa has improvednotably, the volume of trade also increases year by year. At the same time, China’s influenceover the continent has become much more remarkable. Thus, the western countries andmedia are paying more and more attention into the growing contact between the two sides,about which they worry a lot. Based on the Content Analysis Method, this paper makessome research on the reports about the economic and trade links between China and Africafrom the year2006to2010. And all those reports are selected from the most influentialnewspapers of the western world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal inAmerica and Financial Times in the Britain.Choosing the perspective of journalism and communication, which is different fromother researches, this paper intends to explain why and how the western mainstreamnewspapers build the image of China and its relationship with African countries. The truth is,in order to maintain their own interests in the contient, some western people usuallycriticize China’s policy on Africa even distort the active programs which are proved to bebeneficial to those poor countries across the whole land. By the systematic analysis of thesereports from the three newspapers, this paper draws a conclusion that, insisting firmly onthe western consensus and values, they want to get China into the world-systems where theyhave the leadership. So, China should be aware of the situation and face the challenges. Atthe end of this paper, some advice is put forward about how to improve the influence anddiscourse power of China’s mass media and foreign communication.