What does the phrase “Red Menace” make you think of? Science fiction? Cyberpunk? The Cold War? Communism as in “Reds Under the Bed”? Do you associate it with 21st century China?
China. Communist China. Chinese Spies. Chinese influence. Chinese infiltration. East versus West. New Cold War. World War Three. Axis of Evil.
These were all ways China was portrayed in two popular British tabloid newspaper headlines, The Sun and the Mail Online (the Daily Mail’s online counterpart). In fact, “Red Menace” was an excerpt from The Sun’s coverage of China allegedly hoping to take advantage of weakening Western alliances and invade Taiwan.
Were the headlines positive, negative or neutral?
When analysing a combined 226 headlines from the Mail Online and The Sun published between June 2024 and March 2025, 187 of the headlines portrayed China negatively. Just eight headlines portrayed China in positively, while 31 headlines portrayed China neither positively nor negatively.
Headlines related to China may be used to provoke fear for the predominantly socially conservative readership of the Daily Mail and The Sun, who have concerns over what they perceive as a threat to their way of life. To this audience, China’s rise as an economic superpower threatens Britain’s place in the perceived social order that has historically been dominated by Western nations like the US and Britain.
Both publications used populist rhetoric around issues related to China, specifically about the danger posed by anything Chinese, although The Sun tended to be more overtly hostile towards China, emphasising sections of a headline by using capital letters and different colours to ensure the section stands out from the rest of the headline.
Even if the article’s focus was business, China’s involvement was presented as concerning. China was accused of “plotting” to take over the American coffee market when a company called Luckin Coffee overtook Starbucks as China’s largest coffee chain. Changes in the market were presented as evidence of China’s efforts to destroy the West. The implication was that regardless of what China did or was accused of doing, China’s presence or the participation of people linked to China was a sign of nefarious activities.
Headline themes
Reoccurring themes in the headlines included China being represented as technologically advanced, China posing a significant threat to national security, China as suspicious due to concerns over spying and infiltration, and China as a uniquely dangerous and destructive force.
As a country, China was presented as inherently suspicious, and Chinese people were presented through animalistic language like “swarm” , which could imply that Chinese people are like insects all flying into an area at once; “swarm” must be stopped before the numbers become overwhelming. Chinese-made cars were to “flood the UK market”; both “swarm” and “flood” have connotations of danger from an unstoppable force.
Anything with links to China was presented as being dangerous, often in relation to national security concerns. For example, emphasis was placed on the fact hackers were Chinese as if the hackers’ nationality or ethnicity was particularly relevant in the headline describing how hackers shut down British infrastructure. Including “Chinese” in the headline could play into pre-existing fears over Chinese influence and the increasing concerns over cyber attacks; an interpretation could be that the hackers being Chinese made the story attention-grabbing.
China was often portrayed as technologically advanced in warfare, with some articles accusing China of preparing for World War Three. Technology developed by China was assumed to have sinister intentions. In total, the Mail Online made references to war in 17 of the 120 headlines analysed, while The Sun mentioned war in relation to China in 28 of the 106 headlines analysed; both publications emphasised China’s military capabilities. Language related to the Cold War was used on 48 occasions in the headlines, including “Iron Curtain”, “space race”, “Sputnik” , “nuclear war”, and “Axis of Evil”.
The Mail Online presented China as a threat to the West and its interests on 103 different occasions, with a key area of concern being growing Chinese influence globally. This included the China hoping to “poach” American talent for Shenzhen-based employment opportunities, China’s new “mega-embassy” being built in London, and even a Chinese spy infiltrating the British Royal Family. China was portrayed as scheming and exploitative of other geopolitical issues, including being a “puppet master” in Russia’s apparent quest for “world domination”.
Comparisons to China were used to emphasise a bad idea. One Mail Online headline included a quote that compared a plans for a new Berkshire housing estate to China, the implication being how the housing estate consisting of identically built houses was similar to Chinese housing because they lacked individuality.
Of the 226 headlines analysed, China was presented as a threat to the West on 138 occasions; China was portrayed as scheming or acting with malicious intent on 149 occasions.
Where does the hostility come from?
John Steel, Research Professor in Journalism in the School of Humanities and Journalism at the University of Derby, suggested that part of the British media’s hostility towards China could be shaped by a lingering resentment motivated by, “Britain’s imperial legacy,” he said: “China was a former colony of Britain. Obviously, Hong Kong is relatively recent; I know it’s a long time ago now that Hong Kong was, quote unquote, ‘handed back to China’.”
However, Professor Steel also theorised that the negative coverage of China was linked to the state’s human rights record, particularly in relation to the Uighur minority who face state-sanctioned persecution, he said: “There’s also maybe the fact that China [has] obviously got a significantly poor human rights record; that it’s an authoritarian state; [it’s a] one party state; it is known for the persecution of minorities and certain groups; it doesn’t tolerate dissent.”
While these are all valid critiques, Professor Steel believed there was a, “double standard,” applied to China, he said: “Britain is friends with many repressive states that are not democracies and treats them very differently [in comparison to] China.” China is seemingly singled out for condemnation when Britain has long allied itself with Israel, a state that has been accused of crimes against humanity including Apartheid and genocide. Britain has supplied Turkey with military aircraft, despite the Erdogan regime also being accused of the repression of political opposition, freedom of speech, press freedoms and persecution of minority groups.
Anti-Chinese sentiment
According to Tim Summers, Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong ‘s School of Governance and Policy Science, anti-Chinese sentiment plays a role in how the British news media portrays China. When asked if Sinophobia has always shaped the West’s perception of China, he said: “Historically, yes; there’s the “Yellow Peril” phenomena from the early 20th century as well as the construction of narratives of China as backward which was part of justifying the Opium Wars.”
The “Yellow Peril” refers to a historical perception of East Asians (including people of East Asian heritage) as posing a threat to the West (typically meaning Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand). East Asians (usually Chinese or Japanese) were portrayed in Western media as the “Other”, where they represented an alien and conniving culture that would never assimilate into Western, capitalist society; their true loyalties lay with the mother country.
When reporting on China allegedly continuing research in the lab where Coronavirus was suspected to have leaked from, The Sun’s headline included the phrase “Wu Serious”, which was presumably a play on words for “you serious” and likely referenced the location of the lab being in Wuhan. “Wu Serious” could also be a mockery of the surname Wu, a popular Chinese name; mocking Asian names is a trope that dehumanises Asians and implies to a Western audience that all Asians are the same. In the same article, a Chinese scientist was dubbed “Batwoman”, likely a reference to the rumour that Coronavirus was started by Chinese people eating bats; this narrative led to Chinese people (including those who merely looked Chinese) being held collectively responsible for the global pandemic that killed millions.
Is anti-communism still relevant?
The overall negative portrayal of China can be expected from two major right wing tabloid news publications since China is often associated with communism, despite a more accurate description of China’s state ideology being authoritarianism with socialist and capitalist elements. Discussing the misconception of China as a communist country, Professor Summers said: “China is no longer communist in any meaningful sense, but that has not percolated through to most perceptions in the UK.”
Although anti-communism did play a role in the negative perception of China in the British news media, a more common trope was China as a threat to national security due to concerns over Chinese spies being planted in Western institutions like universities. Professor Summers said: “There have been many stories about Chinese “influence” in government, academia, business, most of which are based on thin evidence or insinuations.”
Despite framing China as communist being largely inaccurate, The Sun used the word “red” in 15 out of the 106 headlines analysed, including “Red Alert”, “Red Waves”, and “Red Moon”; the phrase “Red Menace” was used in four headlines. Historically, the colour red was associated with communism, especially in Cold War-era propaganda like the “Red Scare” and “Reds Under the Beds”.
In Western cultures, the colour red often symbolises warning, danger and bloodshed, while red in Chinese culture represents good luck and good fortune. The juxtaposing associations with red could be symbolic of China and the West representing opposite societies; the West represents freedom and democracy, the East (China) represents oppression and tyranny.
Overall, just eight of the 226 news headlines analysed explicitly referenced communism, yet China’s political ideology being communist was referenced on 11 occasions, while references to “communist propaganda” were made in two headlines.
China being linked to other concerns
China was also linked to illegal immigration both in Britain and the USA, which was significant because opposition to immigration has long been a popular topic in the tabloid press. This accusation was part of a populist narrative where immigration was framed as a course of many societal problems, which could lead to further demonisation of Chinese people because China has been accused of complicity in the so-called “mass migration” crisis.
Overall, the British media’s China problem was historically linked to anti-Chinese sentiment and anti-communism in the context of the Cold War and Cold War-era propaganda that positioned the West as representing freedom and the East as representing authoritarianism. In the present-day media coverage of China, hostility was primarily motivated by concerns over national security and geopolitics, although the repeated inclusion of China in the headlines could be used to frame China as a major factor in issues related to the apparent decline of the West as a dominant force worldwide.
