4 Findings
4.9 Images of China
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and that the country is laggard healthcare, disease surveillance and control.
4.9 Images of China
Table 4.7 further presents the lexical descriptions of China‘s human rights, investment, shortage of resources, environmental protection, Internet, social problems, art, education systems, healthcare system, disease control and surveillance system, and the Olympics in reference to the three research periods.
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Table 4.7 Lexical Descriptions of China
Magazines
Topics Time The Economist
human rights NEGATIVE Bid Failure
a wind of suppression, crackdowns, Beijing‘s images takes a double pounding, protests, China‘s heavy hand reached out to block an exiled dissident from speaking at U.N. headquarters, clampdowns and arrests, crackdowns, shocking abuses, empty talk to improve respects of human rights, cracking down harder, crackdown on dissidents, detained several human rights activists, the worsening human rights conditions in China, political repression is increasing, 1993 was the worst year for political arrests, suppression, ban, silencing dissent
NEGATIVE Bid Failure
―Visitors arriving in China were supposed to surrender any foreign newspapers they may be carrying,‖ protests, oppress, clampdown on dissent, censorship, ban, crackdown, political repression in China is increasing, jailed
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control, silencing dissent, to muzzle liberal thinkers, the state keeps its grip, block any mentions of the Tiananmen immolations, bar, jailed, kept under close police scrutiny, held by Chinese authorities, silenced, Beijing detains yet another American academic, detentions, democracy denied, crackdown, fierce crackdown, bullying and brute force, ban Falun Gong, jailed, threatened, ―the sound of freedom being squelched and a government that has spared no means to crush it,‖ ―Beijing moved hundreds of soldiers into Kashgar‘s soccer stadium…to put down potential local disturbances,‖ crackdown in Xinjiang, repression, intent on extending crackdown
Olympics Hosting
suppression of Tibet‘s religious and cultural traditions, the hazard of citizen journalism, ―As the Olympics draw near, China launches a vigorous crackdown on dissent,‖
crack down in Tibet, ―oppressed citizens in Tibet and elsewhere,‖ ―Beijing‘s heavy hand in Tibet,‖ ―the
authorities will no doubt make it impossible for journalists to enter Tibet,‖ clamp down, ―vehicles have been banned from the roads‖
Bid Success
ban of Falun Gong, control, block, restrictions, a taste of democracy…turned sour, elections have brought nothing but misery, opposing officially approved candidates results to beatings and threats by police and thugs, repress Muslim minority in Xinjiang, tight control
Olympics Hosting
discrimination, control, ban, censorship, tighten, widespread human-rights abuses, crackdown in China‘s wild West, police stopping interviews and detaining those involved for over three hours, …―power should be returned to the people‖…seems unlikely, suppression, clampdown,
―monastery towns …of the Tibetan plateau are being sealed off from visitors,‖ ―China‘s crackdown…is breeding
resentment and storing trouble for the future,‖ ―…security will be tightened, dissidents kept behind bars and foreigners firmly steered away from the region [Tibet],‖ access to Youtube has been blocked since shortly after the Tibetan government-in-exile showed video footage showing Tibetan protesters being beaten by Chinese police, Internet censors, repression, the state cracks down on civil society
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POSITIVE Bid Failure
release, freed, recent improvements
Bid Success
―the cooperation of orphanage workers and government officials allowed the foreigners to provide training and some money, and compared to 1990, it‘s wonderful,‖ ―So far, the government hasn‘t objected to a few souls saved along the way,‖ ―a North Korean family in China makes a bold bid for asylum—and wins its freedom,‖
Olympics Hosting:
―gays in China no longer need to lead an underground life‖
POSITIVE Bid Failure
freed, loosen controls on overseas travel, release political prisoners,
Bid Success
―China‘s press—Let a hundred papers boom,‖ ―government eases the rules,‖ granting license to foreign media, a
democratic transformation,
Olympics Hosting
You have permission to think freely…China‘s prime minister lets a hundred flowers bloom‖
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risk, trade of shares is so sluggish, market decline
Bid Success
The $200 million agreement between AOL and Legend makes both sides nervous, foreign players will surely fail
Olympics Hosting
bear market, ―China‘s attempts to invest strategically in the developed world keep running into walls,‖ ―Corporate America used to be enamored of China…the attraction is fading‖
NEGATIVE Bid Failure
continuing failures of China‘s domestic market, overheated about China, the risks of instability are high, often
unprofitable, always unwieldy, China‘s big state-owned firms cannot be restructured without foreign help, China officially announced a two-year ban on new foreign joint-venture car plants, foreigners are holding back in Chinese investment
Bid Success
―…foreigners are restricted to buying shares that are listed in China but quoted in a foreign currency,‖ ―China‘s stock- markets are worse than a casino,‖ ―The government struggles to profit from share sales,‖ ―…the stockmarket‘s long slump, caused in part by investors‘ anxiety about a possible flood of new shares‖
Olympics Hosting:
a tough new era for Chinese companies, risk aversion hits Chinese stocks, awful stockmarket performance, more Chinese business are collapsing, ―the housing market
provides some nasty shocks to China‘s new middle-classes,‖
…the murky and fragile state of Chinese business, ―investors
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the promise of China, ―the gravitational pull of the mainland is proving to be a stronger force than political apprehension…not only China but also all East Asia is reaping benefits…,‖ Nike plans to increase shares in China
Bid Success
―A backward province steers its economy from drugs to a clean, green source of income [herbal medicine]‖
Olympics Hosting
―Beijing is asserting itself on the world stage as the global economic crisis weakens the West,‖ ―this year, China settles all business,‖ ―While the Detroit giant [GM] tries to stave off bankruptcy in the U.S., its China operations are setting sales records‖
appear to have little faith in company accounts,
―…companies may also have had an artificial boost‖
POSITIVE Bid Failure
Another Chinese take-off, China‘s airlines are soaring upwards, the Chinese dragon is clearly flexing its wings, Pepsi-Cola announced a huge expansion plan, predicting that within 12 years China will be its biggest market outside the United States, China‘s stockmarkets—erupting
Bid Success
the market soared, ―The world‘s best-performing stock- market in 2000 has been China‘s‖
Olympics Hosting
―…the listing and subsequent ballooning of the shares in WuXi PharmaTech has drawn gasps. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on August 9th at $14 a share, and the price has since doubled,‖ China is an irresistible market, Shanghai‘s bustling stockmarket
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―One of the most serious problems with China‘s headlong expansion is that it is underpowered‖
Bid Success X
Olympics Hosting
―China is losing the race to…meet its soaring power needs with green technologies‖
China‘s hunger for natural resources is causing more problems at home than abroad, wasteful water use, China‘s water woes will only worsen
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more and more students are fighting to undo environmental damage
Environmental protection in China—Don‘t drink the water and don‘t breathe the air…and don‘t expect the government‘s environmental watchdog to do much about it, China and the U.S. are by far the world‘s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases
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Olympics Hosting
―China is applying green principles to the construction of entirely new cities such as Dongtan…which will use recycled water only and generate electricity using
biomass,‖ ―…experts study how Japan became one of the world‘s most energy-efficient countries, with the aim of applying those lessons and methods to China‖
Olympics Hosting
China is making a more convincing show of action in tackling climate change
Internet NEGATIVE
Bid Failure X
Bid Success X
Olympics Hosting
―Chinese computer hackers are allegedly breaking into high-security networks in the U.S. and other countries‖
NEGATIVE Bid Failure X
Bid Success X
Olympics Hosting
…the Internet is not truly a worldwide web: it is only as wide as China
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[public order] from bad to worse, more people are stealing, mushrooming illegal settlements
Bid Success
―As men from the provinces flood into the city, the villages they leave behind are dying out,‖ a harrowing trade in infants, China‘s baby bust, bang goes stability, growing frustration over social inequities, Chinese junk, drugs were the scourge of pre-communist China
NEGATIVE Bid Failure
China‘s people are getting out of control,
…China‘s draconian population policy has tended to be blamed for the mysterious shortage of girl babies
Bid Success
China is becoming more unequal, ―guns in China—the wild East…armed crime is rising sharply in a country that once prided itself on its law-abiding orderliness, China‘s rural governments are bust, the rural administration of
Liangtouyuan…is crippled with debt, a huge and potentially
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Olympics Hosting
China‘s demographic and gender imbalances,
catastrophic, ―Things have absolutely gone out of control [with kids‘ addiction to the Internet]
POSITIVE Bid Failure X
Bid Success X
Olympics Hosting X
destabilizing sex imbalance
Olympics Hosting
A spate of attacks points to deep-rooted social troubles,
―…urban factories are running out of migrant labour, and…bad working and living conditions in some cities are deterring the rural poor
POSITIVE Bid Failure X
Bid Success
suicide in China is at last being discussed…today the media often report on the issue, and national get-togethers are organized to tackle it
Olympics Hosting X
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art NEGATIVE
Bid Failure X
Bid Success
rock can‘t find an audience
Olympic Hosting X
NEGATIVE Bid Failure
―living dangerously with Mr. Wang, a writer whom a critic has called him a ‗hooligan‘ writing ‗about riff-raff for
riff-raff‘,‖ ―the ‗Palace‘ [Cultural Palace of Nationalities] is a Stalinist monstrosity, Shanghai films collapsed during the cultural revolution
Bid Success
―A privately run museum of pre-Communist sexual art and artefacts had to move its premises because it was forbidden to display the word ‗sex‘ on the street,‖ ticket sales remain depressed
Olympics Hosting X
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POSITIVE Bid Failure
―a new brand of creativity is flowering in the arketplace,‖
…upbeat about the cultural opportunities that are opening up
Bid Success
creative types are finding inspiration and freedom in China‘s southwest, Chinese contemporary art is playing a unique role
Olympic Hosting
a stunning new arts center, fascinating, ―China‘s capital is buzzing with a hot cultural scene, creative entrepreneurs and a collection of eye-popping buildings‖
POSITIVE Bid Failure
...Chinese cultural policy has lately been liberalised,
Bid Success
the Noble Prize will help Mr. Gao [Xingjian] perform a second favour: that of changing the outside world‘s literary view of his homeland
Olympics Hosting X
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public schools in trouble, …not happy with the education provided by the public primary school
Longer breaks, a more relaxed regime, and better school lunches are no doubt on the way, flexible policies on migrants‘ education
Olympics Hosting X
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―…an invasive procedure without anesthesia at a small, gritty hospital…,‖ ―In terms of medical care, China is one of the most challenging countries…‖
the cost of treatment is becoming ever more prohibitive for the poor…government spending is meager, the healthcare system is a failure, the chances of free dialysis…are zero
POSITIVE
officials are at last getting ready to unveil plans to fix the healthcare system
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residents are paying an awful price for selling their own blood, the Chinese government is denial about AIDS
Olympic Hosting
―A very serious epidemic,‖ negligence by provincial and local-level officials had contributed to the spread of AIDS
Olympics Hosting
slow progress against snail-fever, …the long-term solution for the disease is to find a vaccine…whenever that comes…it will be too late‖
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Olympics NEGATIVE
Bid Failure
Sydney trumped Beijing…the much touted and controversial [candidate]
Bid Success
In its bid to host the 2008 Games, Beijing prepares a (Potemkin) Olympics Village
Olympic Hosting
We [people] have no access to tickets…even if we [they]
did, we [they] couldn‘t afford them
NEGATIVE Bid Failure X
Bid Success
China has changed, but not enough to get the Olympic games, Beijing‘s bid should be rejected
Olympics Hosting
Neither goal [of raising China‘s international profile and softening its image…conveying to the domestic audience that China has the stature and ability to take in place at the centre of the world stage] will be well served next year by
ham-fisted responses to criticism, ―the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay…was always a risk, the suppression of riots and protests in Tibet has ensured the torch‘s progress has
graduated from minor diplomatic embarrassment to full-scale public-relations disaster,‖ an ungracious host may give visitors one more reason to protest, all that gold does not glitter
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POSITIVE Bid Failure
The People‘s Republic strives to startle the world with its winning ways
Bid Success
…the Games will empower leaders who favor political reform
Olympics Hosting
A breathtakingly spectacular start to the Olympic Games heralds the return of China to the center of the world‘s stage, a battalion of Chinese athletes who resoundingly displaced the U.S. atop the gold-medal count
POSITIVE Bid Failure
―…a Chinese representative simply pointed to the five rings on the Olympic flag and said: ‗China has 1.27 billion people more than one-fifth of the world‘s population. Therefore one of those rings on the flags represents [us].‘ He has a point.‖
Bid Success X
Olympics Hosting X
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From Table 4.7, it is clear that China‘s human rights were largely negatively covered throughout the 1992 to 2009 periods in both newsmagazines. The human rights image presented were those, for instance, suppression of minority groups and jailing of dissidents. However, improvements of human rights could also be seen, particularly in ―bid success‖ period, during which the Chinese government granted license to foreign media, cooperated with orphanage workers to save orphans. In
―Olympics hosting,‖ China was seen to be more tolerant towards gays.
Another important topic under the ―Politics‖ category aside from ―human rights‖ was ―Olympics‖. China‘s Olympics was also greatly negatively portrayed in the Time and The Economist. Both magazines questioned whether Beijing was ready and had the ability to host a mega-event. From ―bid failure,‖ ―bid success,‖ to
―Olympics hosting‖ in Time, Beijing was framed as a touted and controversial candidate, the host nation was preparing a Potemkin Olympics Village, and that people neither have access nor be able to afford the tickets. From ―bid success‖ to
―Olympics hosting‖ period, The Economist said Beijing did not change enough to get the Games and that it should be rejected. Further, neither goals of China hosting to Games such as raising the country‘s international profile could be achieved.
Nonetheless, the fact that China being able to host a spectacular Games and defeat the U.S. in terms of gold-medal counts were recognized in Time during the ―Olympics hosting‖ period.
In terms of investment, during the ―bid failure‖ period, China‘s stockmarket was seen to be risky. In ―bid success,‖ the stockmarket was viewed as worse than a casino with long slumps, and that foreign players will surely fail. In ―Olympics hosting,‖ China‘s stocks were seen to have awful performance with Chinese business collapsing, investors appearing to have little faith in the company accounts and that the attraction of China investment is fading. However, there were also positive images
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of investment in China throughout ―bid failure,‖ ―bid success,‖ and ―Olympics hosting,‖ respectively, such as the promise of China, the world‘s best-performing stockmarket in 2000, and China was an irresistible market.
With regards to shortage of resources, China was seen to be underpowered from September 1992 to September 1994 in Time, running dry and out of steam from July 2000 to July 2002 in The Economist, water woes would only worsen and that the country was losing the race to meet its soaring power needs with green technologies from August 2007 to August 2009 in the magazines. However, China‘s efforts of protecting its environment were starting to become recognized in both magazines, particularly in ―Olympics hosting‖ period. Time showed China was learning how Japan became an energy-efficient country, hoping to apply the lesson to China, while The Economist praised China as making a more convincing show of action in dealing with climate change.
For the Internet in China, the medium was presented as liberating Chinese youth during ―bid success‖ in Time, with booming social-networking and video-sharing during ―Olympics hosting‖ in The Economist. However, during the two years before and after the hosting of the Games, The Economist noted that China‘s Internet was not truly a worldwide web; it was only ―as wide as China‖.
In terms of social problems, both magazines had mostly negative images of the issue throughout the three periods. During ―bid failure,‖ public order was portrayed as from bad to worse, more people are stealing and that the Chinese people are getting out of control. During ―bid success,‖ there were images of China being unstable with crimes rising and unequally developed with rural governments crippled in debt.
During ―Olympics hosting,‖ the country‘s gender was portrayed as imbalanced and living and working conditions in some cities were poor. However, The Economist noted that the Chinese government was starting to pay attention to suicidal problems
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within the country and national get-togethers were organized to tackle it.
For China‘s art, the issue was more positively portrayed in Time than in The Economist throughout the three periods, such as flowering creativity in the marketplace, Chinese contemporary art was playing a unique role, and that new arts centers were stunning. The Economist, on the other hand, focused more on people‘s low acceptance.
China‘s public education was portrayed as problematic in Time during ―bid failure,‖ while The Economist was more optimistic about the changes to be made, as promised by the then Premier Zhu Rongji.
Images of China‘s health were largely negative in both magazines. For example, patients had to endure procedures without anesthesia at small and gritty hospitals, and cost of treatment was becoming more and more unaffordable by poor people during the ―Olympics hosting‖ period. Moreover, the government was not active enough to prevent diseases like AIDS from spreading.
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Chapter V
Conclusions and Discussion
This study sets out to explore whether hosting the Beijing Olympic Games has made a change in China and helped promote the country‘s images as measured by quantitative and qualitative analysis of news coverage on China in Time and The Economist. The research is aimed to answer the questions of 1) How do Time and The Economist differ in the coverage of China in terms of subject, tone, and length of coverage? 2) Is there a trend of covering China in Time and The Economist regarding subject, tone, and length of coverage as the Beijing Olympic nears? 3) How do Time and The Economist frame the news about China? This chapter presents a summary of the findings for each of the research questions, attempts a discussion on whether the
This study sets out to explore whether hosting the Beijing Olympic Games has made a change in China and helped promote the country‘s images as measured by quantitative and qualitative analysis of news coverage on China in Time and The Economist. The research is aimed to answer the questions of 1) How do Time and The Economist differ in the coverage of China in terms of subject, tone, and length of coverage? 2) Is there a trend of covering China in Time and The Economist regarding subject, tone, and length of coverage as the Beijing Olympic nears? 3) How do Time and The Economist frame the news about China? This chapter presents a summary of the findings for each of the research questions, attempts a discussion on whether the