Neighboring competitor? Indian image in Chinese media

Abstract

Despite being two of the most populous and neighboring countries in the world, India and China have long been unfamiliar about each other. Although both of them are tagged as “emerging economic powers” in today’s world, China and India are much different in terms of political system, social structure, and cultural traditions. Owing to such differences and even prevalent stereotypes between the two countries, most of the information about them is channeled by their media systems. The review of literature presented in this article shows that the Chinese media and communication scholars are concerned more about Chinese media in India and not vice versa. As a reaction to this unbalanced literature, this article demonstrates a pilot content analysis of three different types of online news media in China, namely Sina News, Caixin Net, and Global Net. The major findings are as follows: Indian image on these media platforms is mainly negative, followed by neutral and positive. Among others, India–China relations, military expansion (some with territory/border issues), and oddities in the Indian society are most reported topics. Moreover, Indian portrayal by the online media is nationalist and defensive, being deemed as a “neighboring competitor,” and is subject to political or geopolitical agenda. All in all, the image of India presented by these Chinese online media platforms is a critical entry point for China’s self-reflection about its cultural ego-centrism, orientalism, and Westernizing political–economic modernization process. For a future with better mutual understanding and brighter China–India relations, this article offers a series of suggestions for both scholars and practitioners of different professions, including the epistemological revitalization of both countries’ geopolitical position in the Global South and in the grouping of emerging economies like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa against the former Western dominant powers.