My research examines how China communicates political order, legitimacy, and international hierarchy through state media, public diplomacy, and public discourse. Across projects, I combine substantive questions in international relations and political communication with quantitative text analysis, computational methods, and, where appropriate, survey experiments.

Chinese State Media, Public Diplomacy, and International Narratives

A central strand of my research examines how China represents foreign countries, regional relations, and international order through state media and public-facing discourse.

Selected Publications

• Yuan Zhou. Forthcoming. “Depicting Democracy as Chaos: An Analysis of International News in Chinese State Media.” Mass Communication and Society.
• Yuan Zhou. 2026. “Deciphering China’s Central Asia Policy: Insights from State Media Narratives.” Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies. [Article]
• Xiaoyu Pu, Chengli Wang, and Yuan Zhou. 2025. “Censor and Sensitivity: How China Handles the US Embassy’s Public Diplomacy in Cyberspace.” Journal of Chinese Political Science, 30(4): 565-587. [Article]
• Yuan Zhou. 2022. “China’s Mediated Public Diplomacy towards Japan: A Text-as-Data Approach.” Asian Journal of Communication, 32(4): 327–345. [Article]

Ongoing Work

• Jou-Fei Huang, Kohei Watanabe, and Yuan Zhou. “The CFRI: A Text-Based Measure of China’s Bilateral Relations.” (Working paper)
• Yuan Zhou, Tomoko Takahashi, Raphaëlle Khan, and Juan Acevedo. “Constructing the Global South: China’s Counter-Hegemonic Narrative Strategy Across State Media and Academic Journals.” (Working paper)

Public Opinion, Democracy, and Authoritarian Persuasion

A second strand focuses on how political narratives are received by domestic and foreign audiences, including perceptions of democracy and the persuasive effects of authoritarian messaging.

Selected Publications

• Duancheng Yang, Yuan Zhou, and Yun-han Chu. 2025. “Voices from Within: Tracing Chinese Public Perceptions of Democracy in the New Era.” Journal of Chinese Political Science, 30(2): 169–193. [Article]
• Tetsuro Kobayashi, Yuan Zhou, Lungta Seki, and Asako Miura. 2025. “Autocracies Win the Minds of the Democratic Public: How Japanese Citizens Are Persuaded by Illiberal Narratives Propagated by Authoritarian Regimes.” Democratization, 32(6): 1474–1495. [Article]
• Yuan Zhou, Tetsuro Kobayashi, and Lungta Seki. 2026. “Evaluating the Impact of China’s ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy’ in East Asia: An Experimental Approach.” The International Journal of Press/Politics. [Article]

Ongoing Work

• Tetsuro Kobayashi, Yuan Zhou, Lungta Seki, and Asako Miura. “Authoritarian Storytelling in the Liberal Sphere: Reassessing the Mechanisms of Illiberal Narrative Persuasion.” (Revise and Resubmit)

Human Rights, Global Governance, and Political Text Analysis

I also study how political actors communicate normative claims in global politics, especially around human rights and international order, while using computational approaches to address theory-driven questions in political science.

Selected Publications

• Yuan Zhou, Ghashia Kiyani, and Charles Crabtree. 2025. “Quantifying Women’s Rights Naming and Shaming: A Novel Text-as-Data Approach.” International Interactions, 51(4): 689–707. [Article]
• Yuan Zhou, Ghashia Kiyani, and Charles Crabtree. 2023. “New Evidence that Naming and Shaming Influences State Human Rights Practices.” Journal of Human Rights, 22(4): 451-468. [Article]
• Kohei Watanabe and Yuan Zhou. 2022. “Theory-Driven Analysis of Large Corpora: Semi-Supervised Topic Classification of the UN Speeches.” Social Science Computer Review, 40(2): 346–366. [Article]

Ongoing Work

• Juan Acevedo, Raphaëlle Khan, Tomoko Takahashi, and Yuan Zhou. “Redefining ‘Great Powerness’: The Social Identity Strategies of Rising Powers.” (Under review)
• Duancheng Yang and Yuan Zhou. “Discipline by Design: How China’s NSSF Reshapes Political Science.” (Working paper)