Who Takes the Lead? Reciprocal Relationship Between Media and Political Agendas on EU-China Trade Relations in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (2001-2020)

The debate over China’s economic influence on European Union (EU) countries has become increasingly prominent on political and media agendas since the Chinese government launched the “Belt and Road Initiative” in 2013 (Hufnagel et al., 2022; Zhang, 2020). Specifically, EU politicians expressed growing concern about China’s economic expansionism and human rights violations (European Parliament, 2021), whereas business representatives claimed that bilateral trade and economic relations should not be used as a tool of political interests (Chinese Mission to the EU, 2021). China was portrayed in Western media as either “a leading economic actor” or “an unreliable economic rival” (Lams, 2016). Yet not much is known about the agenda-setting and -building dynamics of such bilateral trade relationships. A plethora of literature showed the effect of media coverage on issue salience among the public and in the political realm, known as agenda-setting (e.g., Iyengar & Simon, 1993; McCombs, 2014; Walgrave & Van Aelst, 2006). However, only a few studies focused on the reverse relationship, so-called agenda-building, which refers to the impact of political agenda on the media agenda (e.g., Sciarini et al., 2020; Van Noije et al., 2008). Specifically, existing research was largely conducted in a single country; only a handful of previous studies adopted a cross-national comparative perspective (e.g., Vliegenthart et al., 2016) and revealed how country-level characteristics moderate the interaction between the press and parliament (e.g., Vliegenthart & Mena Montes, 2014). As previous research mainly zoomed in on election periods and social issues, such as immigration (e.g., Brandenburg, 2002; Vliegenthart & Roggeband, 2007), these contingent effects have not been examined in the context of international trade relations. It is interesting to see if previous findings also hold true for this issue. Therefore, this study will investigate the reciprocal relationship between media coverage and plenary debates of the European Parliament (EP) on EU-China trade relations and explore how this relationship differs across Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different countries and EP political groups. Empirically, we rely on time-series analyses of quarterly data on issue attention in newspaper coverage and in EP plenary debates on EU-China trade relations between 2001 and 2020. The starting point of the sampling period was determined because China’s WTO accession in 2001 signaled its integration into the global trading system and its growing economic influence in the world (Chen, 2009). The ending point was chosen in light of Brexit. EP plenary debates were selected because they are one of the most important venues for MEPs to raise questions, express criticism and take policy positions to influence public and media agendas (Greene & Cross, 2017). To provide a comprehensive picture of the Dutch and UK media landscapes, we retrieved 820 newspaper articles from 15 newspapers and 596 individual speeches from EP debates. Prospective findings not only expand on existing knowledge about the conditional agenda-setting power of media and agenda-building power of the EP in the context of EU-China trade relations, but the results also carry implications for policymakers and journalists.