Crumbling Giant, Rising Dragon?: Chinese News Media Cartoon Reflections on the Eurozone Debt Crisis

This paper explores China’s relationship with the European Union by analysing their mediated interactions during the eurozone debt crisis. Despite different current economic situations, China and the EU are a key global alliance. In light of this, the paper considers visual framings of the eurozone crisis in China’s leading business newspaper focusing on meanings and evaluations rendered by political cartoons. The analysis finds the Chinese business press depicts the EU as struggling to handle its own financial affairs and asks whether this is seen as an opportunity for China to seize the title of global economic ‘heavyweight’.