ChinaMED Archive

In February, the number of COVID-19 cases was still limited in the Mediterranean region. Hence, the media of the countries in the wider Mediterranean region mostly focused on the economic impact of the virus. Interestingly, some, mostly commentators in the Gulf, framed the appearance of the virus as a sign of divine punishment.We found expressions of concern regarding the impact of the Chinese...

April was a month of reckoning as media across the wider Mediterranean region published polls and commentaries that helped shed light on how the public reacted to Beijing’s aid campaign and to Washington’s attempt to reshape the COVID-19 narrative with an emphasis on Chinese responsibility. In Southern Europe, it seems that Italy was the only country where Chinese so-called “mask diplomacy”...

As cases of COVID-19 have increased, the pandemic has accordingly become the main topic of discussion in the media of the wider Mediterranean region as many are worried about the health and economic damages that it will cause. Indeed, regardless of the geographical position, there has emerged a region-wide consensus that the pandemic broke out in a moment of extreme social and economic...

In the first month of 2020, Mediterranean media published a number of extremely interesting articles. The coverage of China’s activities and relations with Mediterranean countries was, somehow surprisingly, rather positive. This is especially the case in Israel. At the same time, we found detailed commentaries on the oil-for-reconstruction agreement signed by the Chinese and Iraqi government in...

President Xi Jinping’s visit to Greece garnered a lot of attention in Chinese media, with several commentaries published in the second half of November. The implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), President Xi’s flagship diplomatic initiative, was put at the center of the dialogue between the two countries as the base for future cooperation. Unsurprisingly, the Port of Piraeus...