The Multilingual Case Database on China-related Global Public Opinion was launched in Shanghai on March 28 in a move set to drive opinion about China in key world regions.

With the support of computer information technology, the team behind the database plans to probe significant events concerning China through human-computer interaction.

Data will be analyzed from reports since 1990 in eight major language areas–China, Britain, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, Spain and the Middle East–in an effort to generate global opinion about China.

Gathered information will fall into three broad categories and 12 sub-categories.
 

Approximately 60 media events will be studied to analyze the interaction between Chinese and foreign governments, foreign media, Chinese and foreign state leaders and other factors, thereby exploring different models of China-related world opinion in various media and languages.

 

Since China became the second largest economy, the world has seen increasingly frequent political, economic and cultural exchanges between different regions, with transmission of information in multiple languages.

Guo Ke, director of the Research Center for Global Public Opinion of China at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), claimed that due to this trend it is necessary to build a standing, accumulative multilingual database on global opinion related to China.

Taking case analysis as a point of departure, the database will promote the integration of research on multilingual text and global opinion, information technology and social sciences, as well as applied and theoretical research, Guo added.
 

The research team aims to capitalize on high-quality online resources to accelerate international communication research, therefore improving research efficiency and innovating research patterns, providing value-added services for society and effectively connecting to China’s national strategies including the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, or Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
 

To intensify global public opinion analysis, it is important to first “bring in” knowledge about changes in public opinion worldwide and then “go out” to learn how global opinion varies in China-related news coverage by the international community, said Jiang Feng, secretary of the Party committee of SISU.

 

Li Yu is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.