Framing China’s mask diplomacy in Europe during the early covid-19 pandemic: seeking and contesting legitimacy through foreign medical aid amidst soft power promotion

Abstract This analysis discusses China’s soft power push in Europe, specifically focusing on mask diplomacy during the early stage of Covid-19 outbreak. Using a sample of 233 articles published by European-based news media such as the BBC, Euronews, Politico, French 24, and Der Spiegel, from March to September 2020, we argue that China’s mask diplomacy acted as two overlapping legitimacy-seeking tools, one that demonstrated the legitimacy of the CCP’s governance (authoritarian frame) and one that sought foreign gratitude and acceptance of China as a responsible global leader (leadership frame). We also argue, however, that China’s soft power effort was overshadowed by two other dominant frames found in the articles: compensation for the government's early cover-up (remedy frame) and infringement on EU solidarity and security (threat frame). Our results also show that European media tend to default to longstanding stereotypes of Yellow Peril and Orientalism. Most reports othering China as the source and spreader of Covid-19 critically portray China’s medical aid as propaganda and compensation, thereby undermining China's soft power efforts and their credibility. Additionally, the study opened up a minor, though rather novel, discussion on China's top-down management model's positive impact on handling the health crisis in China.