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This work explores China's African public relations and image‐building effort, focusing on Nigeria. Thus, the paper's purpose is twofold: first, to investigate whether China's conduct of public diplomacy through its soft power resource—development assistance—has effectively shaped positive Nigerian public perception of China, and second, to determine the media's role in advancing China's public diplomacy in Nigeria. Specifically, it explores the interaction of economic development assistance, media, and public relations. I do this by comparing China's foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria (2010–2019) with the public's perception of the FDI's influence on the Nigerian economy (2016 and 2020) and the media's role in shaping public support toward the investments. Utilizing a range of datasets, I find that Chinese economic investment alone is insufficient to substantially shape positive Nigerian public perception of China. Within a framework of mediated public diplomacy, I demonstrate that the Chinese image‐building effort in Nigeria would likely enhance when the country links economic investments with public relations to make the investments more visible through effective media representation. Related Articles: Ayhan, Kadir Jun, and Nancy Snow. 2021. "Introduction to the Special Issue—Global Korea Scholarship: Empirical Evaluation of a Non‐Western Scholarship Program from a Public Diplomacy Perspective." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1282–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12440. Hodzi, Obert, and John H. S. Åberg. 2020. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Strategic Deployment of the China Model in Africa." Politics & Policy 48(5): 804–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12378. Huijgh, Ellen. 2017. "Indonesia's 'Intermestic' Public Diplomacy: Features and Future." Politics & Policy 45(5): 762–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12221. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Nigeria to explore the interplay of China's economic investments and the media as image-building instruments of Nigerians' perception of China. Thus, the purpose is to investigate whether China's development assistance has shaped the desired outcome—Nigerian public support of China—and to explore the media's role in this process. How effective are China's economic and infrastructural investments as strategies for influencing a positive public image in Nigeria? How can visibility—the amount of media coverage and exposure—of China's investments in Nigeria shape favourable Nigerian public support? Utilising a range of datasets and a longitudinal analysis, I find that Chinese investments may improve Nigeria's economic growth and people's standard of living, but are insufficient to build a positive public image of China. However, China could create a long-lasting favourable public image from its investments if the programmes were supported with effective media representation that made them more visible through the public's news sources. I employed a qualitative research technique and rested the theoretical argument on mediated public diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2000s, China has deepened public relations in its engagement with Africa primarily through economic investment and assistance. The present work looks at China's African public relations and the mechanism that shapes public perception of China, focusing on Mali. Mali is not a major destination for Chinese investment, yet public perceptions of China appear to be uniquely positive. How may we explain this trajectory? The work undertakes a longitudinal examination, comparing China's economic developments in Mali (2010–20) with Malians' perception of China's influence on the Malian economy that shapes the general perception and attitude towards China (2010–20) and the media's role in this process. Some questions guide this study: how do Chinese economic activities in Mali shape Malians' perception of China? How does the media contribute (if any) to shaping Malian perception of China's developmental programmes? Employing a mixed research method and a range of datasets, I find that economic investment does not necessarily shape positive public perception of China in Mali. Instead, how the public receives information about economic investments shapes and enhances a positive perception of China in Mali. Consequently, China would substantially enhance its image-building effort when its foreign economic development assistance is linked with public relations, making economic programmes more visible through media representations. I based the theoretical discussion on the media agenda-setting framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to examine the asymmetric relationship between China and Kazakhstan under a proposed framework—symmetric interest. It breaks from the domination–submission, divergent stakes, interests, patterns, and misperception perspectives characterizing asymmetry to show how asymmetric relations in a non-external security context elucidate peaceful relations. Under what conditions do asymmetric relationships defy misperception and confrontation to produce peaceful cooperation? How is the BRI likely to manage China's asymmetric relationship with Kazakhstan? The study argues that asymmetric relations within domestic security and other non-external military security issue areas engender peaceful cooperation. This peaceful cooperation emerges because the stakes and interests of the parties become more symmetrical in absolute terms; thus managing misperceptions and associated confrontation. We propose a framework of symmetric interest and employ the cases of China and Kazakhstan to test the hypotheses and support the conclusion. Beyond providing an alternative perspective in the asymmetry literature, we lastly offer a discussion of the policy relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, international relations (IR) literature on the pandemic's implication on global politics has generally increased, while studies on small businesses and human developmental consequences in the developing world have lagged. In this context, through a micro-level analysis, this article investigates the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic affects the economically bottom-class citizens and their businesses, focusing on small-scale vendors in Ghana. It utilises content analysis to examine 384 small-scale vendors in four cities/towns (Accra, Tema, Sunyani, Ho) in Ghana between August and October 2021. We show that the pandemic has negatively affected economic life and ordinary living conditions by increasing poverty among economically bottom-class citizens, likely to have dire long-term consequences nationally. Further, we contend that the small-scale vendors and entrepreneurs recognise leveraging the increasing Chinese global economic influence. Thus, China provides an exit point through which the people can navigate themselves out of the COVID-19 predicaments. Our study is novel for its first-level—individual—analysis of the impact of COVID-19 in the Ghanaian market space from an IR perspective. It also provides policy relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China features significantly in the Covid-19 narrative for good and bad reasons. The purpose of this paper is to test, empirically, the assumption that Covid-19 would negatively influence perceptions of China in Ghana, due to its perceived relationship with the pandemic. We characterise Chinese manufactured products as soft power resources and analyse the role they play in addressing the personal needs and interests of Ghanaians and how they affect positive and negative perceptions of China amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We used a mixed research method and collected data from a sample size of 1,020 for analysis. We found that Ghanaians are rational actors who maximise the perceived gains of their actions in pursuit of their objectives. Thus, the self-interest and personal satisfaction Ghanaians gain through China's manufactured products outweigh the negative representation of China in the Covid-19 narrative, shaping a positive attitude in Ghana towards China. We situate the argument within rational choice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the United States' and China's international efforts of responding to the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and considers how the global public is receiving both to project how such measures would likely shape the international leadership competition. How do the international efforts of the United States and China on COVID-19 affect their respective soft power? How does the global public perception of the United States' and China's COVID-19 efforts affect their competitive advantage for global leadership? Based on the theory of soft power, I use Europe and Africa as cases with global perception data from the Pew Research Center (2017–2020) to argue that China would likely win some admiration for its COVID-19 efforts. However, it is unlikely to substantially shape positive global public perception of China to gain a competitive edge over the United States. This argument is based on the narrative China presents in the pandemic, its diplomatic style, and the ideational attachment the U.S. style has established. I utilize a phenomenological approach with narrative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gauges COVID-19’s effect on global public perception of China and the likely implications for China’s development model and international influence. How does COVID-19 affect China’s exercise of soft power and the international community’s appraisal of it? Using global perception data from the Pew Research Centre, the paper argues that COVID-19 is likely to have dire consequences on China’s soft power and international influence based on the soft power theory. Specifically, China lost a chance to present the attractiveness of its development model – Beijing Consensus – and establish credibility for global leadership due to the universal perception of the relationship between the pandemic and China despite the country’s international efforts. The paper concludes that this will validate people’s opinions about China and accelerate an already existing trend – unfavourable image. The paper serves as a new scientific contribution to the literature on soft power and foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]