Leiden University Student Repository

Meijer, Casper (2022)

Framing International Relations: Analyzing China-Africa Self-Identification Through FOCAC.

Master thesis | Asian Studies (60 EC) (MA)

Image building within and about China-Africa relations play as major role in the way this growing international engagement is understood. Despite recognition for its important role in high level dialogue and policy creation, non-media platforms, such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, are often overlooked as an important image-building medium. Therefore, by questioning how Chinese and African officials frame their own relationship through official FOCAC-discourse, this thesis seeks to add to contemporary framing theory on China-Africa relations. Three case studies on written and visual framing processes within important FOCAC policy documents, photographs and speeches highlight the multiplicity of frameworks that contribute to the creation of a relational self-image. These analyses reveal how images of China-Africa relations are built on co-existing, but contrasting discourses, and how different framing mechanisms influence each other to shape a multiplicity of images.

China-Africa Relations

FOCAC

Framing

Relational Self-Identification

Image-Building

Author

Meijer, Casper

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Politics, Society, and Economy of Asia

Supervisors

Links, S.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en