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Opinion | To improve China’s image globally, welcome foreigners and let them be bridges to the West
- China should welcome foreigners, including Western journalists, to live and work in the country and not bristle at discussion of its shortcomings
- International media reports that provide a detailed and diverse view of China will be better received abroad than Chinese government statements
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Unfavorable views of China have reached historic highs, especially in the West. Even China’s achievements – such as combating Covid-19 at home – are viewed negatively. What went wrong?
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Some Western media outlets are prone to seeing China as a monolith, characterised by human rights abuses, ethnic division and oppression, and a repressive state. There is less willingness to recognise China’s laudable performance in improving people’s living standards, its vivid social life and tremendous internal diversity. It’s all bad and no good.
Part of the explanation is that Western politicians and thought leaders find it difficult to tolerate a China that is taking a non-Western development path. Leaders in the West have given up hope that China will eventually look like “us”. Therefore, the new priority is to find a way to check China’s rise, destabilise the country and undermine its credibility.
China, meanwhile, has taken a tough stance in response to accusations from Western governments and media. But it is facing a huge challenge in trying to present its point of view in the marketplace of opinion.
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Gloves off at top-level US-China summit in Alaska with on-camera sparring
Gloves off at top-level US-China summit in Alaska with on-camera sparring
Still, it is possible to improve how China presents itself internationally. First, foreign audiences tend to find accounts of a given country more credible if they come from their own citizens, in a language and style that is familiar to them.
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