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China’s perception of the European Union during Brexit: the case of Chinese scholars

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

While Brexit has profoundly affected the EU, few have examined its impacts on the EU’s image in China. Based on an analysis of the Chinese academic representation of the EU in 222 academic journal articles published between 23 June 2016 and 31 December 2021, this article finds that Chinese scholars’ perceptions of the EU, while broadly consistent with previous findings, show several notable changes. Regarding the EU polity, Chinese scholars display an increasingly pessimistic view of the prospect of European integration. Regarding the EU’s actorness on the global stage, they see the Union as a weakened but aspirational actor, and an economic giant with a protectionist tendency and in pursuance of political, environmental and maritime status. Finally, regarding the EU’s position toward China, they see the EU’s relationship with China as being subject to fluctuation, American influence, and growing competition.

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Notes

  1. Most of the excluded articles are published in Contemporary World, Party Building, Theoretical Horizon, and People’s Forum, the ‘journalistic journals’ that often publish articles between two and four pages in length, but are indexed because they are managed by the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Liaison Department, Propaganda Department, Central Party School, and People’s Daily, respectively.

  2. Distribution of articles by years: 24 published in 2016, 27 in 2017, 37 in 2018, 34 in 2019, 47 in 2020, and 53 in 2021.

  3. Chinese scholars also think that in the aftermath of Brexit, the EU has ‘politicized’ its economy by utilizing its market power (e.g. anti-coercion instruments in 2021), currency, and industrial strategy (Jin 2020b, pp. 82–5; Xie and Zhang 2020; Fang and Yin 2020, p. 59), which reinforces the representation of the EU’s ‘protectionist’ tendency.

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Acknowledgements

This article would be impossible without the two guest editors’ help and encouragement. We are grateful to them. Guowei Wang provides valuable research assistance. This article benefits from a grant from the Beijing Social Science Funding Office on ‘China-UK Relations after Brexit’ (18ZGC013). All errors are ours.

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Zhang, B., Li, Q. China’s perception of the European Union during Brexit: the case of Chinese scholars. Comp Eur Polit 21, 631–648 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-023-00356-2

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