ChinaMED Archive

Uncertainty informed most of the articles published by Mediterranean media in May. Very few countries seem to have a clear answer to the Chinese puzzle. In general, we notice growing pressure on governments, for example the Greek and Israeli ones, that got t too close to China. Only the Qatari press explicitly celebrates the government’s ability to forge strong relations with Beijing...

The debate about how to balance the risks and the opportunities produced by China’s growing engagement with the region was the main topic in the Mediterranean media in April, although with important differences in terms of depth of reporting and attitude toward China.We begin this month’s review with Southern Europe. In Italy, there are still doubts and concerns about the choice made by...

During September 2017, the Chinese media articles that we selected showed concerns for the evolution of the Kurd issue and the possible repercussions for regional politics. Xinhua interviewed Tang Zhichao, the Director of the Division of Middle East Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of West-Asian and African Studies. Tang showed pessimism for...

February was an intense month in the context of relations between China and the countries in the larger Mediterranean region. In particular, while the visits of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif put Beijing’s traditional diplomatic balance between the two rivals in the Gulf to test, the accusations from the Turkish Ministry of...

The US and Israel were the main focus of the Chinese media in May. While the commentary pertaining to US policy was negative as usual, even Israel received criticism (a rare event in the Chinese discourse). The other articles reviewed in this issue of the Bulletin provide a more general update about the evolution of China's relations with the Mediterranean region.Both Chinese scholars, like...