China's Strategic Narratives About AI on YouTube: Variations In Communication Targeted At Europe Vis-A-Vis Other Regions

In October 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping articulated China’s vision for global Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance at the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, introducing the Global AI Governance Initiative. President Xi emphasized the importance of enhancing representation for developing countries in international AI governance to promote equitable rights, opportunities, and standards. In pursuit of these goals, China employs state media, including the China Global Television Network (CGTN), to project strategic narratives about AI to audiences in Europe and other regions through social media platforms such as YouTube. This paper investigates how China’s strategic narratives about AI disseminated on YouTube and targeted at Europe vary compared to other regions. YouTube is chosen for its status as the world’s second-largest social media platform by monthly active users and the availability of publicly accessible data through the YouTube API. By analyzing 416 AI-related videos posted by CGTN between October 2023 and November 2024 on four CGTN YouTube channels, CGTN Europe, CGTN Africa, CGTN America, and CGTN Global , the paper addresses three key research questions: (1) How do China’s strategic narratives on AI, as disseminated by CGTN on YouTube, differ for Europe vis-à-vis other regions? (2) To what extent does audience sentiment in YouTube comments align with China’s strategic AI narratives across these regions? (3) What factors drive the variations in China’s strategic narratives about AI when comparing Europe to other target regions? Using natural language processing (NLP) and text-as-data methods, specifically sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and cosine similarity analysis, this study examines video transcripts and audience comments to explore both rhetorical framing and audience reception. A linear regression model further identifies the determinants of narrative variation, with the dependent variable representing strategic narrative differences derived from sentiment and topic modeling, and independent variables including China’s foreign policy stance, bilateral trade volume, geopolitical alignment, and presence of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in each region. Control variables such as internet penetration rates and levels of economic development are included to account for broader contextual factors. The hypothesis to be tested is that variations in China's strategic narratives about AI targeted at Europe and other regions are influenced by China’s foreign policy stance, trade relations, geopolitical alignment, and BRI involvement. Regions with stronger trade ties, greater geopolitical alignment, and significant BRI involvement are anticipated to exhibit more favourable sentiment with China’s strategic narratives about AI. Furthermore, regional internet penetration and economic development levels are hypothesised to moderate these influences on narrative variation. This research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of China’s strategic narratives about AI and the factors shaping these narratives for European and other regional and global audiences. It also seeks to provide insights into the effectiveness of CGTN’s communication strategies concerning China’s strategic narratives about AI on YouTube targeted at Europe and other regions, thus contributing to broader discussions on the international politics of AI.