The Perceptual Gaps Constructed by the Chinese and Western Media on the East China Sea

The geopolitics on the East China Sea is a scholarly hotspot. The Western and Chinese scholars differ greatly in perceiving the situation. Many Western scholars argue that China is claiming the resources of other countries, expanding its military activities or even building up hegemony in this region, while the Chinese scholars contend that China’s legal rights and interests are being undermined by the USA and its allies. Nonetheless, to study the geopolitical dynamics on the East China Sea, scholars have to heavily rely on the media reports. Since media can influence people’s perception of an event and thus construct the realities, this paper examines the extent to which Chinese and Western media’s construction of realities differ. By employing the analytical framework of media package and looking into the narrative structures of news reports from the major Chinese and the Western media, this paper argues that the framing and reasoning devices implemented by the Chinese and Western media are completely different on the issues of the East China Sea. An “offensive China” is being perceptually constructed on the Western news reports, and China is being depicted as a victim of the USA’s global strategy by the Chinese media. This leads to the mistrust and misinterpretation between China and the Western countries led by the USA. Hence, the building of peace and security on the East China Sea is often hampered, as the perceptual gap is being constantly reproduced by the media.