A Study on the National Image of China in The Australian during the COVID-19 Epidemic

This paper explores the attitude of The Australian, a mainstream newspaper in Australia, towards China, the factors that caused the change of attitude and the shaping of China’s national image, by reading the China-related reports in it. Analyzing the data, the author finds that the newspaper’s China-related reports are mainly negative reports, and the fundamental reason lies in the different national interests of Australia and China, which leads some reports going against China’s idealized image of a big country. In the end, this paper puts forward some suggestions on the construction of China’s overseas image, hoping to help and draw lessons from the future research on the shaping of it and provide reference for the formation of a more positive overseas image of China.