Public diplomacy networks: China's public diplomacy communication practices in twitter during Two Sessions

This study illustrates the Two Sessions and proposes the concept of public diplomacy network to investigate the effect of China's public diplomacy communication on Twitter. Twitter data comprising 14,874 tweets and 7773 users was collected during March 5 to March 20 in 2018, the combination of social network analysis and content analysis were employed from a holistic, relational and networked approach. The results present public diplomacy networks' structural characteristics, key participants' networking patterns, communication strategies, issue participation, and homophily effect that participants who take the same attitude towards China (negative & neutral or positive) are clustered in each group. In conclusion, although China's state-owed media takes the lead in public diplomacy communication, foreign practitioners dominate the NGOs, researchers, correspondents, and generally take negative attitude towards China. China's media outlets underperform in allying closely, and China is entrenched in traditional one-way monologue. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications are addressed.