Networked frame contestation from authoritarian to Western democracy – A case of China's (failed) Twiplomacy in contesting coronavirus narrative in the UK

Transnational political communication today is being reconfigured by digital technologies and global power transition. Authoritarian state actors such as China are increasingly active on social media platforms Twitter to directly advance their preferred frames with foreign publics in Western democracies, most notably what could be called Chinese Twiplomacy contesting narrative globally over contentious issues. This paper problematises from authoritarians democracies ‘networked transnational frame contestation’, arguing that the cultural distance between sending target countries, networked affordance of media, national prism all contribute importantly complexity contestation. Through a case study China's coronavirus UK, this further provides empirical evidence how contestation’ works politically culturally distant countries. Using mixed-method approach combining network analysis discourse analysis, finds emotion-evoking discursive strategy draws traction but authoritarian nature highly centralised networkedness its strategy, together strong discordance British publics, lead recontextualisation intended Britain. heavily relying elites press for affairs, invoke shared reference recontextualise into resonant counterframes. proposes paradigm ‘networkedness within cascades’ understand contestation