(iPoster) Mapping Affect in Chinese National Identification under China-US Ideological Competition

• In Event: Poster Session: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries (Asia)

Abstract

While existing research has focused on affective polarization along partisan and ideological lines, little is known about whether publics can be divided along outward-oriented attitudes toward foreign powers. This study takes China as a case to examine whether attitudes toward Western countries (i.e., Europe and the United States) shape social identity and generate affective polarization. Using social media data from Xiaohongshu (Rednote), the study analyzes whether netizens with different emotional attachments to Western powers express hostility toward one another. The results are expected to show that affective polarization might also emerge within a party-state system and be structured along foreign-orientation cleavages.

Authors

• Lumin Fang, China Agricultural University

• Unregistered Participant