From Tian'anmen Square to the global world stage: framing China in the German press, 1986–2006

Beginning with the historical background, the study investigates how two leading German newspapers covered the People's Republic of China from 1986 to 2006. These two decades were characterized by political turmoil and increased trade relations between the two economically powerful countries. The content analysis, which focuses on the amount of coverage, topics, and journalistic forms, attempts to describe how China has been framed over the years. The findings show an increasing significance of the economy on which again and again shadows were cast by political conflicts. Six frames can be observed; some are positive (political cooperation) and some are negative (scepticism with regard to p…