Med informationsarenan som slagfält - En studie om engelskspråkig kinesisk statsmedias hotkonstruktion av väst efter Rysslands invasion av Ukraina

Sammanfattning: The war in Ukraine has rocked the international security order with a changed threat picture as a fact. The relationship between China, Russia and the West is complex due to that China agrees with Russia in a common adversary; Western democratic values, while having economic interests in continuing exporting their goods to the West. The united West, including its sanctions against Russia, can put China in a corner - Who will China ally with in a possible future confrontation between Russia and the West? Information influence is commonly used by states around the world to shape narratives in order to justify their agenda. Meanwhile, prominent researchers have on multiple occasions concluded that there is still not sorted out, academically, how to properly identify information influence. This study is motivated by this knowledge-shortage and examines information influence through the lens of China’s threat construction and reflexive control connected to the West. Further this study is also motivated by the possible relational change between China and the West due to the new security order and attempts to provide insight to the matter by, based on the theoretical framework of securitization, combined with narrative analysis including visual material, analyzing what threat constructions can be discerned in how West is portrayed in the Chinese English-language state media; Global Times. From the identified narrative patterns in the threat constructions, one can distinguish three themes; 1) The actions of the West threaten international security, 2) The West threatens other countries sovereignty and 3) The actions of the West constitute a threat to its own existence. Further, the analysis shows how these themes can be classified as information influence, produced to convey specially prepared information with the task of getting an actor to voluntarily make decisions that benefit China. The identified themes indicate that China, despite the new security order, still portrays the West as an adversary.