China’s Image in India: Mediatized Reflection of Sino-Indian Relations

As the world’s most populous, emerging neighboring powers in the east, the relationship between China and India is vital for many reasons. Even though these countries share the same geographical boundaries, most of the information about their national – international affairs and agendas are channeled by their media systems. And these media systems have a pivotal role in the complex nexus between India and China, as “the pictures in our head” regarding “the world outside” are under the influence of ideas and messages propagated through mass media.  Likewise, media and media representation play a significant role in the geo-political conflicts as the threat perceptions exist between these countries. Therefore, each country’s media and its attitude towards their counterpart are critical for investigation as it is crucial to strengthen the bond between India and China. This is because the media approach of a nation may not be positive, even if the image depicted by the media is positive. This article is a comparative analysis of Chinese media vs Indian media to understand the mediatized image of China and India’s international affairs with China, as it critiques the research that has been done in this area.

It is observable that the number of studies on the Indian image in China is less than the studies on the Chinese image in India, and the researchers across China and the West are concerned with the Chinese image in India. Studies on Chinese image in India investigate people’s views about China and its culture. There are only a few studies that have critiqued the Chinese media depiction of India and their influence on India – China affairs.

According to the research conducted on the three leading media platforms in China named Sina News, Global Times, and Caixin, the mediated image of India is negative, nationalist, defensive, being deemed as a “neighboring competitor”, and is subject to geopolitical agenda. And these media leave a negative apprehension on India and its attempts to achieve progress in competitive matters like military, economy, and its international markets and resources. Besides, it is observed that the Indian image in Chinese media is a critical entry point for China’s self- reflection about its cultural egocentrism, orientalism, and westernizing political-economic modernization process.

To balance the literature, it is equally important to understand the Indian media’s approach towards China along with an understanding of Chinese media’s approach towards India. According to the Registrar of Newspaper for India (RNI), there are 82237 newspapers in India compared to 1894 in China. The focus of the media report in both India and China rely on territorial issues, defense, nuclear power generation, and international contracts (especially with Pakistan, Japan, and America). While the Chinese media possess a negative approach to India’s strategies on above-mentioned topics, Indian media exhibit a more neutral and a slightly positive approach to China’s socio-cultural aspects and a critical approach to policies and agenda. The reports related to Indo-China affairs reveals that the Indian media are keen to observe China and its international affairs, and they have a specific concern on the effects of global relations on India.

Comparing the nature of news reports on each countries’ major news entities, most of the reports are related to ‘Indo-China relations’ and ‘border/ territorial issues’. Military tensions, technology, and competitions in terms of the market are the other major categories of news coverage by the media platforms in India and China. A trend of competition between China and India could be traced from the news articles. It reveals that the Indian media have a tendency to view both China and India as the competitors in the same race, as the media here evokes a threat perception and competition between India and China. In one of the blog articles of the Time of India, the reporter commented that “our South Asian neighbours; Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh are being actively wooed by China. We are in competition with China there. Becoming strategically aligned with the US is likely to sharpen, rather than diffuse, this unnecessary competition”.

By highlighting the geopolitical conflicts and objections from the Chinese government in the development projects in the Border States of India, the Indian media evoke fear, generating threat in the news reports. Threat perceptions are more evident in the news reports about military conflicts and army intrusion. The Indian media tend to observe China as an obstruction in its development process, especially the development projects being implemented in the Border States like Himachal Pradesh. The image of China transmitted through the three Indian online platforms, named The Hindu, Times of India, and Malayala Manorama is diversifying the roles of a ‘neighbouring threat’, and a ‘competitor’ in India’s economic growth.

One of the major findings of the research is that, remarkably, there is nothing that has been reported so far that can be considered negative about Chinese culture, people, or history. Indian media have less coverage on Chinese culture, society and people. But these topics have already been the subject matter for many human-interest magazines, publications, and history books.  Here, the media is more concerned with its source country’s growth and development. The socio-economic as well as technological advancement in China has been observed with great interest as long as it doesn’t create a feeling of threat to India. Summarizing the analysis based on the existing literature and research, Chinese image in India is more nationalist and its primary focus is on the contradictions between social groups and governments. Another important characteristic of India-China nexus is channelled as the asymmetrical perception of mutual threat. And it is noted that the threat perception in India is far more acute than in China.

Being the most populous countries in the world, both the countries’ media have a remarkable role in conditioning people’s attitudes about their societies and other countries. We can conclude from observation that the nature and attitude of media representation of China-related reports is inconsistent, as it doesn’t follow any fixed frames or pattern. The number of news articles increases as there the increase of events (conflicts/ disputes/ summits). Studies have shown that the increased media coverage of any action by government enhances public fear. Given the present scenario of the steady growth of internet, accessibility of cheap electronic devices and multiple applications for higher connectivity, critiques of the mainstream media’s role in China–India relations has become more important. Identifying the need for better mediated and non-mediated communication is crucial for bridging the knowledge gap between China and India.