European Studies in China. Images of Europe from without

The European Union is China’s biggest trading partner and China is the EU’s second-biggest partner (after the United States). They trade more than 1 billion euros per day. In order to consolidate relations with China, the European Union provides research funding to Chinese universities through the Jean Monnet program and through the EU-China Innovation cooperation. But what do academics in China research about Europe? Does the EU with its efforts of promoting European studies gain a political advantage over China or vice-versa? In this article, we investigate articles published in the Chinese Journal of European Studies between 1980 and 2016. We run text analysis with R to identify the relevant topics researched, the research methods used and the prominent scholars in the field. The paper allows us to understand the image of Europe that transpires from articles in this journal and the effectiveness of EU promotion among academic elites in China. This research thus provides a different angle regarding the position of Europe in the world while contributing to the political economy of skill formation and Europeanization.