THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINA’S IMAGE IN EUROPEAN EXPERT DISCOURSE

The article examines how the European expert community perceives China and how this perception has changed from 2003 to 2023, using the classic image theory approach of Richard Herrmann and Michel Fischerkeller.The main objective of this study is to trace how the transformations in the image of China were affected by the evolution of Sino-European relations and to what extent these transformations influenced EU policy toward China.Given the significant role that the epistemic community plays in shaping policy in Europe, both at the national and EU levels, the focus is made on expert positions.The study applies qualitative content analysis of policy papers from seven of the most reputed European think tanks, covering the period of 2003-2023 (a total of 187 documents).Relying on the five ideal-typical images of the "Other" (enemy, ally, degenerate, empire and colony), the paper contributes to the theoretical framework by introducing a new idealtypical image -a rival -to better describe the nature of EU-China relations and European experts' perception of China.The conclusion is made that the image of China has shifted from that of an ally with degenerate elements to that of a rival with significant enemy elements.Key periods and turning points in the evolution of China's image are identified and the linkage between this image and the official EU policy toward China is revealed.