“China’s economic invasion of Africa” (The Guardian, February 6th 2011), “China’s ambitious bid for Southeast Asia hegemony” (DW, December 24th, 2019), “China in Latin America: partner or predator?” (The South China Morning Post, May 25th 2019). These are just few examples of titles that can be found on the web and that tell us something about the way the media portray China’s forays abroad as well as its increasing involvement in many developing countries. With its initiatives aimed at trading with the rest of the world and obtaining precious resources for its development, the Chinese presence in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia and South-East Asia in fact has been causing for about two decades restless sleep in the so-called “Western world”, which sees its supremacy being eroded by China’s increasingly active role abroad.
China’s moves in the developing world must surely be kept under scrutiny, as well as those in the so-called “developed countries”. To achieve this objective, it is certainly necessary to acquire knowledge of China’s historical path - and in particular the phases that led the country to expose itself to the rest of the world. This is the first objective of this course, which will allow students interested in international relations, history and / or contemporary China to learn about some fundamental aspects of China’s very recent history and of its presence and activities abroad. The second objective of the course, on the other hand, has a more “critical” character. It invites students to develop an attentive eye on how the Western media view and comment on China. To achieve this goal, the course will introduce the first rudiments of media analysis, inviting at each unit to practice an analysis of media coverage on the Chinese presence abroad.
- Lehrende(r): Giulia Romano