Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
MULTI-YEAR DATA STUDY SHOWS DEEP MEDIA BIAS AGAINST CHINA
The international media is stunningly biased against China, data from a multi-year study has confirmed.
Out of 133 lengthy analyses of China in the Financial Times “Big Read” column over a four-year period, only two articles presented China positively, researchers in Hong Kong and London discovered.
Separate studies of the Guardian and the BBC showed that 90% of China stories were negatively framed.
In the researched period to July 2021, there were 576 reports on China in the UK Telegraph, of which only 2.5% took a positive stance.
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ALMOST NO POSITIVE COVERAGE
In general, news media almost never published a positive report about the country, said the analysis of reports in the Telegraph, the Guardian, the BBC, the Financial Times and the Economist.
The result was that the public received a misleading image of the country, said the study by Dr Tim Summers, who led the research project involving Hong Kong and UK academic institutions.
“The British media texts researched for this paper contain almost no positive coverage of China,” Dr Summers’ paper says. “This will not come as a surprise to many readers.”
The bias of western mainstream media’s coverage of China is widely known. But Dr Summers’ team at Hong Kong’s Chinese University and London’s Lau China Institute (part of King’s College) enables a data-based look at the problem.
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OVER-POLITICIZATION LENS
Bias was not the only problem. The study revealed that western journalists tended to politicize all their coverage of China—even when the topic being covered was not politics.
“A political and normative lens is often brought to coverage of social, economic and cultural issues”, researchers said.
Reporters put everything through their hostile western lens to “reinforce a monochrome, reductionist and negative picture of the country and its politics,” Dr Summers said.
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THE ECONOMIST SCORES ZERO
The Economist covers China with a weekly column called “Chaguan” written by David Rennie, which constantly recycles the same words over and over to paint whatever China does as “bullying” and “threatening”, the research showed.
There was not the slightest attempt at fairness. Analysis showed his columns were mostly clearly negative, with a small number being mixed.
The data indicated that not a single one was classified as clearly positive.
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HONG KONG AND XINJIANG
The research showed that the names of two locations, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, were thrown into articles almost randomly as keywords for repression.
“They are frequently mentioned in passing in reports on topics that are not related to either place, in a way that frames China negatively: a template to plug into any story that needs evidence for Chinese ‘repression’, even if that story does not relate either to Hong Kong or Xinjiang,” the study said.
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HARMFUL TO CHINESE PEOPLE
Interestingly, some reporters seemed to know this position was harmful to China and its people.
The report quotes John Sudworth, the BBC correspondent notorious for his hostile attitude to China, and associated with the now-debunked “Uyghur genocide” narrative.
Sudworth admitted in an interview that he focused only on the negative, and knew that doing that was problematic. He said: “Obviously there is a danger that that becomes shorthand not just for the Chinese Government and the Chinese system but for the sort of place China is and for its people in general, and I can really see the danger in this.”
It’s fascinating that he knew how harmful this was, but it never stopped him and his BBC colleagues giving the world a totally misleading image of China—which the BBC continues to do on a daily basis.
China correspondents defend themselves by saying that they are not down on the Chinese people, but just hate the Chinese government. Analysis of their writings indicated that wasn’t true, the research showed.
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PROF BELL: ‘EVIL GOVERNMENT’
The negative narrative is so solid in western media that other views cannot be put forward, said Professor Daniel Bell, quoted in the study.
“There is almost universal consensus in the West that China is led by an evil government that is bad to its own people and dangerous to people in other countries. It’s extremely difficult to publish views that argue otherwise.”
How to get the truth out? You can’t. The western media is so united on this narrative, that they have turned public opinion in western countries against China. Professor Bell added: “Public opinion makes it almost impossible to publish comments that offer a balanced picture of Chinese politics in leading Western media outlets.”
Dr Summers ends his report with a recommendation. “To achieve a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of China, alternative sources of information should be actively explored, and those with different opinions encouraged to contribute to the policy debate.”
MULTI-YEAR DATA STUDY SHOWS DEEP MEDIA BIAS AGAINST CHINA
The international media is stunningly biased against China, data from a multi-year study has confirmed.
Out of 133 lengthy analyses of China in the Financial Times “Big Read” column over a four-year period, only two articles presented China positively, researchers in Hong Kong and London discovered.
Separate studies of the Guardian and the BBC showed that 90% of China stories were negatively framed.
In the researched period to July 2021, there were 576 reports on China in the UK Telegraph, of which only 2.5% took a positive stance.
.
.
.
.
ALMOST NO POSITIVE COVERAGE
In general, news media almost never published a positive report about the country, said the analysis of reports in the Telegraph, the Guardian, the BBC, the Financial Times and the Economist.
The result was that the public received a misleading image of the country, said the study by Dr Tim Summers, who led the research project involving Hong Kong and UK academic institutions.
“The British media texts researched for this paper contain almost no positive coverage of China,” Dr Summers’ paper says. “This will not come as a surprise to many readers.”
The bias of western mainstream media’s coverage of China is widely known. But Dr Summers’ team at Hong Kong’s Chinese University and London’s Lau China Institute (part of King’s College) enables a data-based look at the problem.
.
.
.
.
OVER-POLITICIZATION LENS
Bias was not the only problem. The study revealed that western journalists tended to politicize all their coverage of China—even when the topic being covered was not politics.
“A political and normative lens is often brought to coverage of social, economic and cultural issues”, researchers said.
Reporters put everything through their hostile western lens to “reinforce a monochrome, reductionist and negative picture of the country and its politics,” Dr Summers said.
.
.
.
.
THE ECONOMIST SCORES ZERO
The Economist covers China with a weekly column called “Chaguan” written by David Rennie, which constantly recycles the same words over and over to paint whatever China does as “bullying” and “threatening”, the research showed.
There was not the slightest attempt at fairness. Analysis showed his columns were mostly clearly negative, with a small number being mixed.
The data indicated that not a single one was classified as clearly positive.
.
.
.
.
HONG KONG AND XINJIANG
The research showed that the names of two locations, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, were thrown into articles almost randomly as keywords for repression.
“They are frequently mentioned in passing in reports on topics that are not related to either place, in a way that frames China negatively: a template to plug into any story that needs evidence for Chinese ‘repression’, even if that story does not relate either to Hong Kong or Xinjiang,” the study said.
.
.
.
.
HARMFUL TO CHINESE PEOPLE
Interestingly, some reporters seemed to know this position was harmful to China and its people.
The report quotes John Sudworth, the BBC correspondent notorious for his hostile attitude to China, and associated with the now-debunked “Uyghur genocide” narrative.
Sudworth admitted in an interview that he focused only on the negative, and knew that doing that was problematic. He said: “Obviously there is a danger that that becomes shorthand not just for the Chinese Government and the Chinese system but for the sort of place China is and for its people in general, and I can really see the danger in this.”
It’s fascinating that he knew how harmful this was, but it never stopped him and his BBC colleagues giving the world a totally misleading image of China—which the BBC continues to do on a daily basis.
China correspondents defend themselves by saying that they are not down on the Chinese people, but just hate the Chinese government. Analysis of their writings indicated that wasn’t true, the research showed.
.
.
.
.
PROF BELL: ‘EVIL GOVERNMENT’
The negative narrative is so solid in western media that other views cannot be put forward, said Professor Daniel Bell, quoted in the study.
“There is almost universal consensus in the West that China is led by an evil government that is bad to its own people and dangerous to people in other countries. It’s extremely difficult to publish views that argue otherwise.”
How to get the truth out? You can’t. The western media is so united on this narrative, that they have turned public opinion in western countries against China. Professor Bell added: “Public opinion makes it almost impossible to publish comments that offer a balanced picture of Chinese politics in leading Western media outlets.”
Dr Summers ends his report with a recommendation. “To achieve a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of China, alternative sources of information should be actively explored, and those with different opinions encouraged to contribute to the policy debate.”
