Media, Politics, and Public Opinion in China: Implications for International Relations

Monday, December 2, 5 PM – 6:30 PM
Kaiping Zhang (Tsinghua University and Harvard-Yenching Institute) 
Media, Politics, and Public Opinion in China: Implications for International Relations
College of Arts and Sciences Building Room 132
685-725 Commonwealth Ave., Boston MA
Please register here. 

China’s public opinion landscape has undergone transformations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of geopolitical tensions. What role does the media play in shaping domestic narratives, influencing policymaking, and impacting international dynamics? This talk draws on computational analyses of extensive data from official discourse, social media platforms, and comparative insights from global channels in the U.S. and South Korea, to examine how media, public opinion, and political agenda interact in response to contemporary challenges. The aim is to provide valuable insights into understanding China’s engagement with the world, particularly within the evolving context of U.S.-China relations.

Free and open to the public. 

Kaiping Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tsinghua University and currently serves as a Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar for the 2024-2025 academic year. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University, specializing in Chinese politics, political communication, and deliberative democracy. Dr. Zhang’s scholarly work has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals including Political Psychology, Contemporary Politics, and Journal of Contemporary China, as well as top-tier journals in Chinese. Before joining Tsinghua University, she was a Research Associate at the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University, where she contributed to Deliberative Polling worldwide. Dr. Zhang has received multiple awards for her work, including the Top Paper Award from the Division of Political Communication at the International Communication Association.