How was your weekend, Reader?

I just returned to Bali after attending the New Now Next Media Conference 2026 (N3Con) in Bangkok, organized by the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). Together with Rajneesh Bhandari, I led a workshop on journalist well-being and launched The Human Beat: a WhatsApp group and monthly online check-ins where media professionals can share mental health challenges and practices. The first session is this Friday, at 5 PM SGT, 11 AM CET. Register here.
​
There were some good discussions at the conference, and the panels and informal chats about China gave me new insights that I want to share with you. I never visited China myself, but N3Con made me realize how much Western journalists still struggle to report on the country outside of the familiar geopolitical framing.

Coincidentally, a friend emailed me from China today:

Read more below. And if you like this newsletter, sharing it or recommending it to others helps a lot!

Sanne

Reporting on China without centering the West

At the N3Con conference in Bangkok this week, editor-in-chief of Mekong Eye Paritta Wangkiat, project manager at Dialogue Earth Tom Baxter, and freelance journalist Beimeng Fu reflected on reporting on China’s power in Southeast Asia.

As often, when I attend conferences in Asia, the image of China is far more nuanced than what I come across in Europe, the Netherlands. A question from the audience showed the difference. A seasoned journalist from AFP asked one of the panelists—who had just emphasized the need for journalists to educate themselves on China—if he shouldn’t also "educate Chinese companies to talk to journalists." It was the typical defensive response that I often encounter in conversations about Western reporting habits in Asia.
​
“That’s not our job,” the speaker said nonchalantly. Surely, it’s highly frustrating if you’ve been reporting on China for almost ten years, as the AFP colleague shared, and there continues to be limited information coming from Chinese businesses on important societal developments. But this panel and several informal conversations at the conference taught me that reporting on China from outside of the country becomes increasingly easier because the country’s influence grows. More and more businesspeople and Chinese tourists travel to countries around the world. It creates opportunities to talk to Chinese people outside of China and get an idea of what is going on in their minds.

Another angle is commodities. During lunch, a journalist working for a global newsroom told me how China’s technology on processing rare earth materials—lithium, cobalt, and copper—is so refined that the country is far ahead in that field as well. Think about the implications: these commodities are the foundational building blocks for modern electronics, renewable energy, and defense. The technology is sophisticated, and since China has been investing in this for decades, it will stay ahead for a while. As Bloomberg writes, US Needs Another Decade To Fix 1.2 Trillion Rare Earth Crisis:

The losing vs winning binary

Economic influence on this scale is difficult to fit into familiar Cold War narratives that are still present in journalism, built primarily around military power. While the United States and Russia continue to use bombs and security alliances in their power play, China has increasingly expanded its global influence through trade, infrastructure financing (railways, ports, roads, dams), and control over critical supply chains tied to the energy transition.

But, as you can see in the Bloomberg article’s heading, journalism seems behind. In reporting about China, global media often describe the developments through an EU- and US-centric lens. A big part of the international China coverage is still organized around Western anxiety:

• What does this mean for the US?
• Is Europe losing influence?
• Is China winning?

​Tom Baxter, who created a China learning module for the independent, non-profit media platform dedicated to environmental journalism, Dialogue Earth, mentioned in his talk at N3Con the need for “decoding China,” and listed the challenges for journalists, such as:

• Understanding and reflecting the complexity of China's role in Asia.
• Contextualizing within Chinese governance history and norms (eg Western journalists often assume China is authoritarian, whereas its governance is highly fragmented).
• Access to sources, language barriers, establishing relationships of trust (or, as Tom said during this talk, it’s about doing “just good journalism”).
• Identifying accurate and insightful framing amid polarized geopolitical narratives - Cold War 2.0 (this means also reflecting on your own bias).

The last point is important because you can add more diverse sources and voices, but more nuance in the same structure won’t always solve the issue.

Decolonize language in China reporting

The persistent framing of “China vs the US,” or “authoritarian regime vs democracy,” also uses language in a way that perpetuates bias and assumptions.

Words like “expansion,” “influence,” “aggression,” or “investment” might be accurate, but there are also historical references to colonialism and ideological assumptions that often go unexamined inside newsrooms. A decolonial editorial practice would ask:

• What is the history of this term?
• Who originally popularized it?
• Does the wording describe the reality or is it already an interpretation?
• Would the same language be used for Western state or corporate behaviour?

Beiming Fu mentioned how “land grab” is another example, it’s not a neutral term, and journalists should discuss this. She also shared tips on sources for journalists reporting on China:

• Chinese NGOs like the Greenovation Hub (GHub), an independent environmental think-and-do tank registered in Beijing, China. It conducts in-depth research and publishes reports on several different topics. Or the Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP), which is an independent, non-profit think tank based in Beijing, that focuses on green and low-carbon development.
• International NGOs with presence in China such as the World Resources Institute (WRI), Greenpeace East Asia, or WWF China (officially the World Wide Fund for Nature Beijing Representative Office).
• Chinese academics with whom you will need to build a trusted relationship.

What can editorial leaders do?

1. Refuse to automatically compare everything around China with the West. Editorial leaders should ask a different question during commissioning of stories: Would this angle still matter if the West were not the reference point? It then creates space to report on labour conditions, environmental damage, migration, local resistance, minority experiences, and regional political dynamics without filtering them through Western angles.
2. Apply “epistemic humility” as an editorial discipline. Leave the moral binaries behind. This will be easier if you have the right expertise in your team, people who challenge your assumptions. And criticism of Western framing is often interpreted as a defence of Chinese state power, but that reflex itself reveals the narrowness of the frame.

A more mature journalism and a decolonial approach to it should embrace multiple realities simultaneously: China’s growing geopolitical influence exists next to environmental extraction linked to Chinese capital, and repression against minorities and dissidents. The critique of Western media framing can be legitimate, and the persistence of colonial habits in global reporting is a reality.

Access to China isn't a must (anymore)

Reporting on China increasingly happens from outside of the country: diaspora communities, business networks, tourists, regional trade systems, encrypted communication, satellite analysis, environmental data, and transnational supply chains. It means that the reporting process itself has changed. Access for journalists to China is still important, but that’s just part of the story.

Journalists reporting from or on China are already producing more complex material in this way. It’s often the editor—based in the West and without the expertise— who eventually flattens it, even if it’s just by the headline. So, when you receive something on your desk about China, before you publish:

• Identify the assumed reference point: What is China being measured against?
• Track whether the story requires a Western comparator to make sense. If yes, realize what would happen if you leave that out.
• Resist instant categorization into “authoritarian success/failure” binaries.
• Notice when language refers to historical analogy instead of describing present conditions.

When you report on China in its own way, there is more room for stories on how its society functions internally. The reporting goal is not neutrality, since that concept doesn’t exist in journalism. The task is to be precise and report on China without requiring the West to remain the centre of interpretation.

Solutions Journalism Retreat, Aug 21-23

This summer, I’m organizing for the third time a small retreat in the Netherlands for journalists and media professionals who want to slow down and think more deeply about their work. Over one weekend in nature, we’ll explore solutions journalism, decolonial thinking, and well-being in storytelling. There is space for reflection, conversation, rest, and above all, new perspectives. It's an opportunity to step away from the daily news cycle and return with more clarity and energy. Communication professionals and content creators are welcome too!

“Great retreat with an interesting and varied program. The different parts of the program turned out to be interconnected, which added depth to the overall experience. Great location, beautiful Frisian countryside, lovely food, and interesting people made it a retreat to remember!”

(read more reviews on the website)

I haven't been posting opportunities here, but please follow me on LinkedIn, since I like and share them there.

See you next week!

Sanne