Image of Russia on China's Social Media: Themes and Assesments

In recent years, due to the improvement of Russian-Chinese relations, strengthening strategic partnerships and increasing trade with China, more and more studies devoted to the Russian image analizes have begun to appear. This study also aimes to examine the features of Russian image on the Chinese Internet platform Zhihu. To determine the most popular topics and rating in Russian image discussion by Chinese users, a variety of methods will be used, including a review of scientific literature, content analysis, sentiment analysis, classification and thematic analysis. Using content analysis, 293 posts were analyzed and classified according to three aspects: strength, culture, and alignment of goals. The results of the study showed that Russia is viewed by Chinese users in one of the variations of the image of an «ally», whose goals coincides with the goals of the PRC, Russia’s strength is lower, and its cultural status is higher than Chinese. The most popular topics are: the army and the military industry, relations between Russia and the West, relations between Russia and China, the people of Russia, quality of life and economic development. Sentiment analysis revealed 20.8% negative posts, 30.4% positive and 48.8% neutral, which indicates the ambiguity of the image of Russia. The positive image formed in the Chinese media is very different from the real perception of Russia by Chinese society. Keywords: image, Russia and China, Zhihu, social networks, image of Russia, soft power