Portrayals of Chinese companies in American and British economic news tweets during China's macroeconomic transitions 2007–2023

This study investigates how Chinese companies are portrayed in American and British economic news tweets and their relationship to Chinese economic fluctuations. Analyzing 55,394 tweets from 2007-2023, alongside China's GDP and PMI, the study uses sentiment analysis (ROBERTa models) and LLM-assisted evaluative target annotation to examine ideological shifts (van Dijk's ingroup/outgroup framework). Positive and negative sentiments significantly correlated with macroeconomic indices, with portrayals shifting between ingroup and outgroup representations depending on economic conditions. American tweets were most positive during economic balance and most negative during downturns; British tweets were most positive during stability or early recovery and most negative when downturns were predicted. Specific emotions significantly influenced sentiment swings and ideological transitions. The findings highlight how economic changes and journalistic factors influence the portrayal of Chinese firms in economic news on social media.

Meng Ye, Eric Friginal