Chinese Journal of European Studies

In March 2019, the EU identified China as a systemic “rival” in its policy paper entitled “EU-China: A Strategic Outlook”, which is the first subversive positioning made by the EU since it established diplomatic relations with China in 1975. This article analyzes in detail how the EU creates the logic of China as a “rival” and how it constructs the discourse system of China as a “rival”. It uses Bourdieu’s Field Theory as an analytical tool and takes the Western Balkan issue in China-EU relations as a special case to study the specific connotations of the discourse of identifying China as a “rival” in the European political and public opinion fields, and the functions of relationship, capital and habitus. The empirical study shows that the European political and public opinion fields have formed a basic consensus on the discourse of “China being a rival” when dealing with the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Western Balkans. By comparing the public opinion fields in China and in the Western Balkans, this article points out that the independent development of public opinion field in Europe is increasingly restricted by habitus and capital and tends to be based on ideology rather than facts. This article puts forward some policy suggestions on improving China’s international discourse on the Western Balkan issue.