The Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER) published a report on China’s image in Greece. IIER conducted a Greek media content analysis, covering a period of 2008-2018, and matched its results with data on China’s image among Greek population as caught by various polls. As ChinfluenCE provided consultations on methodology and results of media analyses in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to the Greek colleagues, we share the results of their study.
The report shows that the views of China in Greece are conditioned by four different narratives: “(i) a developing country that still faces considerable socio-economic challenges despite its impressive achievements over the last decades; (ii) an authoritarian regime that does not fully respect the rights of its citizens and has plenty of room for improvement of the rule of law; (iii) a potential ally against the vilified western/European creditors in the midst of the ongoing crisis in Greece; (iv) an ancient civilisation as glorious as the Greek one and a cultural partner, despite the lack of knowledge about Chinese antiquity” (p. 7).
The report noted that there were no indications that Beijing pursues to wield influence by directly controlling Greek media (p. 18). “However, over the last two years the China-friendly predilection in the reporting mode of pro-government media may well be attributed to the role of AMNA (note: Greek national news agency), which has had a cooperation agreement with China’s state news agency Xinhua since May 2016. Furthermore, in December 2017 ANNA signed an MoU with the China Economic Information Service (CEIS), an affiliate of Xinhua, for the establishment of a Belt and Road Economic and Financial Information Partnership.”
You can read the full report at: http://idos.gr/wp-content/
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