C hin a in C May This content analysis examines China’s appearancesA M in the Globe and Mail 2018 and the - Ju National Post from May of 2018 to July of 2019, highlighting the topicsan and tone of coverage with regard to China. This period was characterizeda by China-Canada and China-U.S. tension, and featured a number of newsworthy eventss worth reviewing.adi s ly In the forthcoming full report, which will be published in March 2020, The China D Institute atan Newsp 2019ape r the University of Alberta (CIUA) explores the ways in which Canadian newspapers frameat China and subsequently influence public sentiment. This research builds upon a prior analysis of Canadian news media mentions of China from 2015 to mid-2018, helping to a An illustrate long-term trends as well as flashpoint topics and reactions. This infographic report provides a preliminary glimpse into the ndings of our research. a ly s is: January 2015 - July 2019: s, Total Number of Articles About or Mentioning China by Month 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Jan-15 Mar-15 May-15 Jul-15 Sep-15 Year onNov year-15 mentions of China increased Jan-16 Mar-16 May-16 Jul-16 Sep-16 May 2018 - July 2019: and another fromNov- 120186 - July 2019 77% Jan-17 Most Frequently Mentioned Mar-17 May-17 Topics Jul-17 Sep-17 from 2017 - 2018, Nov-17 55% Jan-18 Of nearly articles collected, Mar-18 May-18 mentioned China substantively. Jul-18 Sep-18 Nov-18 China was a central focus4500 in articles. Jan 19 Mar-19 May-19 Jul-19 23 23 1658 3333 927 a 26 ai 28 immigration 28 innovation 28 conventional energy 32 censorship 33 Over the three andxin ajia halfng years 33leading up to mid-2018, only articles mentioningpollution China34 in the Globe and 34 north korea 545 38 Mail and353 the National Postun primarilydemocratic focused on trade, 43 espionage 44 real estate 44 human rights 48 January 2015 - April 2018 | May 2018 - Julycompared 2019: to from May 2018 - July 2019. 313 crime 53 climate change 54 Comparing Media Framings of China 77 189 united states 90 Between Research Periods infrastructure 98 protest 927 chinese-canadians investment currency and nance conflict growth canada business unpredictable trade The graph below displays a marked shi in media framings of China from January 2015 – competition April 2018 to May 2018 – July 2019. Excluding neutralleadership tone, the number of articles about or mentioning China published by the Globe and Mail and the National Post in the een months from May 2018 to July 2019 (3052 articles) was nearly equalrising to the numberdeclining of articles published in the three and a half year period from January 2015 to April 2018 (3085 articles). opportu In this graph, we see a shi towards “unpredictable” and threat“conflict”, and a steep decline in “rising” and “cooperation” framings over 2018 and 2019. Overall, pessimistic framings of China were more prominent in the latter research period than in the former. nity oppressive 900 800 700 600 cooperation neutral 500 400 300 200 100 0 unpredictable conflict Media Framings of Chinathr eat when Canada-China Disputes are theo Focalpportun Pointity January 2015 - April 2018 declining oppressive rising cooperation cooperation leadership May 2018 - July 2019 competition opportunityrising oppressive modern declining stable unpredictable collapse threat conflict This report focused on four primary bilateral flashpoints: the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the bans levied 18 of articles% with a central by Beijing on certain Canadian exports to China, and national security concerns focus on China were expressly regarding Huawei and Canadian0 network infrastructure. concerned with Canada-China 543 of the articles collected in this study directly addressed these issues, while another bilateral issues. 61 were concerned with China-Canada diplomacy more broadly. The rst notable dierence between these articles and the whole article population50 was the relative absence of more optimistic terms such as “opportunity” and “cooperation”. “Threat” framing was also relatively more prevalent amongst this article group as shown above. 100 Comparing Media Framing of China Across Multiple Canada-China Dispute Focuses 150 200 90 80 70 60 50 250 40 Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig 30 20 10 0 Media framings of China also varied from issue to issue even with the topic of Canada-China bilateralco relations.nflict As shown above, the predominant framing of China in the context of national security associated with articles concerning Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. National Security oppressive Media Framings of China declining through US-China disputes cooperation was rising “threat,” whereas “conflict” was more frequently opportunity unpredictable 95% threat of these were primarily about the26 US-China% trade war rising cooperationneutral opportunity were concernedof articles withwith aUS-China central focus conflicts on China declining threat unpredictableconflict 861 articles concerned U.S.-China conflicts, with 815 primarily mentioning the trade war. 39 articles discussed US national security concerns regarding Chinese 5G technology, and 7 dealt with intellectual property disputes. 0 50 100 trade war The framing of China in these articles reflected uncertainty surrounding the trade war and the tactics and objectives of both actors. Unlike in discussions of national security,150 trade war related mentions of China 815tended to either paint both China and the U.S. as belligerent or neutral. This is why both “conflict” and “unpredictable” were dominant 200 frames for China in this article group. 5G technology 250 300 Media Framings of China in the Context of Hong Kong Social Upheaval 39 350 IP disputes 400 opportunity 7 unpredictable threat conflict oppressive This study only captures the beginning of the protest movement and civil unrest in Hong Kong. Even so, we see notable framing dierences between its coverage and aggregate coverage on China. In the 63 articles in our dataset that addressed the extradition treaty and subsequent protests in Hong0 Kong, “oppressive” was the most common frame used to describe China. Other topics such as Uighur religious freedoms in China, as well as human rights discourses garnered a similar tone of coverage. 5 as well as a detailed methodology will be presented in the nal report 10 Further discussion of these and other observations 15 20 at china.ualberta.ca 25.