Twitter Diplomacy and China's Strategic Narrative during the Early COVID-19 Crisis

IF 1.3 3区社会学 Q2 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Asian Perspective Pub Date : 2023-09-01 DOI:10.1353/apr.2023.a912750

Weiqing Song, Yinyan Ruan, Sibei Sun

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract:This article examines Chinese diplomats' use of Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Although Twitter is blocked in China, Chinese officials use the platform to experiment with new public diplomacy channels and directly communicate with foreign audiences. We argue that China's utilization of Twitter in 2020 functioned as a crisis management and public relations tool and as a mechanism for disseminating a strategic narrative (SN) that articulated foreign policy priorities. To illustrate this, we apply a qualitative content analysis to a selection of tweets from two China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokespersons and divided into three stages. In each stage, distinct narrative themes emerge and construct a cohesive SN across three dimensions: issues, role identity, and the international system. This study reveals that China's public diplomacy apparatus effectively reaches global audiences with well-structured narratives but also that this effectiveness remains very limited.

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推特外交与中国在 COVID-19 危机初期的战略叙事

摘要：本文研究了中国外交官在 2020 年 COVID-19 大流行期间使用推特的情况。虽然推特在中国被封锁，但中国官员利用这一平台尝试新的公共外交渠道，并直接与外国受众沟通。我们认为，中国在 2020 年对 Twitter 的使用既是危机管理和公共关系工具，也是传播阐述外交政策优先事项的战略叙事（SN）的机制。为了说明这一点，我们对中国外交部（MFA）两位发言人的部分推文进行了定性内容分析，并将其分为三个阶段。在每个阶段，都会出现不同的叙事主题，并在问题、角色认同和国际体系三个维度上构建出一个具有凝聚力的 SN。本研究揭示了中国的公共外交机制通过结构合理的叙事有效地接触到全球受众，但这种有效性仍然非常有限。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Asian Perspective INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-

CiteScore

1.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： ASIAN PERSPECTIVE is the peer-reviewed social sciences journal of world/comparative politics of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University. Published quarterly, Asian Perspective has devoted its pages to critical analysis of the global, regional, and transnational issues affecting Northeast Asia for over 25 years. Bringing cogent, thought-provoking examination of the significant developments in Asia and the world as they unfold to the scrutiny of its readership, Asian Perspective continues to promote a healthy exchange of ideas among scholars, students, and policymakers.