EVENTS

This presentation seeks to move beyond the PRC’s official/diplomatic statements and deconstruct the interpretations of the ongoing US-Israel and Iran war by the Party-state media, commercial commentary, self-media, and state media hosted hashtags on social media. It examines the manner in which the Chinese strategic and policy community is framing the war for the domestic audience and for external messaging. The analysis identifies four dominant themes: condemnation of US and Israeli actions as unlawful hegemonism; scepticism about any quick victory over Iran; emphasis on the conflict’s geopolitical and geoeconomic implications for China; and lessons for China’s future strategy under intensifying great-power competition. These narratives portray China as a restrained and responsible power and potential mediator, while framing the United States as a destabilising actor. At the same time, it highlights significant tensions between China’s professed support for multilateralism and the stronger nationalist discourse stressing self-reliance, hard power, social cohesion, whilst stressing the need to be internally prepared for a more conflictual international order.

Speakers

Raj Gupta is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Chinese Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard-Yenching Institute under the Institute of Chinese Studies–Harvard-Yenching Institute Multi-Year Doctoral Fellowship.

Shruti Jargad is a visiting fellow at Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra and non-resident research associate at Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi. Her research focuses on China's political economy and China-South Asia relations.

Chair

Professor Alka Acharya is currently the Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. She was previously Professor and Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies), School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). From 2005-2013, she was the Editor of the journal China Report and had an earlier stint as a full-time Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, from 2014-2017. Her current research focuses on India-China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation and comparing the Indian and Chinese strategies of regional engagement.

Please register for the lecture here