Ties with Thais? Chinese Media Expats and China’s Soft Power Footprint in Thailand

Abstract

This dissertation investigates China’s global media expansion through a qualitative study of Chinese expatriate journalists stationed in Thailand. Moving beyond top-down narratives that portray these journalists as mere instruments of China’s soft power, this research centers their lived experiences, professional aspirations, and everyday negotiations at the intersection of media practice and geopolitical mission. Drawing on four months of fieldwork in Bangkok and Beijing in 2023, the study employs Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of illusio to understand how Chinese journalists construct meaning in their expat work in Thailand. The three empirical chapters respectively examine journalists’ job attractions, their everyday work, as well as their evolving conceptions of professional excellence. Findings reveal that China’s soft power is enacted not through ideological indoctrination but more through journalists’ self-perceived belief in the job and everyday acts of professional reconciliation—balancing institutional objectives with personal and professional commitments. This bottom-up perspective challenges binary frames of state control versus journalistic autonomy and offers a sociological account of how Chinese soft power is negotiated and enacted on the ground, thus making it possible to better assess its strengths and limits. These findings also highlight the human dynamics behind China’s global media presence and the contingent nature of journalistic agency within evolving geopolitical projects.