China’s perception of the EU: Is the EU a friend, an enemy, or a “frenemy”? A case study of China Daily’s framing of the EU

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to study China’s perception of the EU by analyzing China Daily’s framing of the Union, which is a Chinese government-owned newspaper. In particular, the EU-China relationship holds great significance in international affairs. However, in recent years, the bilateral ties have experienced various setbacks due to conceptual differences between the actors. Thus, I argue that it is vital to understand how EU and China perceive each other to make the relationship move forward – does China perceive the EU as a friend, enemy, or “frenemy”? Using the Policy Frames Codebook by Boydstun et al., (2014), this thesis has studied and compared China Daily’s authors’ framing of the EU during two different time periods of President Xi Jinping – his two first years (2013-2015) and his two last years (2020-2022) as president. Based on the 292 articles in China Daily, the study found that China perceives the EU as a friend – not an enemy, nor a “frenemy”. But there are political areas that are non-negotiable for China, such as human rights and Taiwan. However, the findings are significant because no matter the frictions between the actors, China still regards the EU as a friend.