The image of China in the West has always been complex, changing and controversial. With the recent phenomenal growth of the Chinese economy, China's potential as a global power is increasingly felt in the international world. However, China generates both excitement and anxieties by its capacity to create economic dynamism and the potential to alter the existing structures of balance of power. China's radically different cultural and political traditions and realities only add to the complexities of interpreting China's extraordinary changes in many different dimensions. To seek to understand structural issues in reporting China in the West is both critical and most relevant, because changes in China at the public level are largely seen through the interpretations by the mass media. The current special section brings together academics and media practitioners to reflect upon Western reporting of China with a focus on the United Kingdom. It aims to present a critical analysis and assessment of the media coverage of Chinese affairs, to make a unique contribution to the on-going debate on the challenges of interpreting China, to examine the role of the mass media in mediating the popular knowledge of China, and to explore ways in which the reporting of China could be improved. In particular, the section seeks to understand the process of reporting China at the practical level.

Qing Cao, January, 2007