‘Telling China’s stories well?’ Mainland Chinese media discourse on reference societies and global power structures in the wave of PISA

This article examines the media discourse within mainland China on PISA, focusing on the selection, depiction and functions of external education systems that are cited (called reference societies). Drawing on the theoretical concept of projection, complemented by a postcolonial lens, 298 articles (published between 2001 and 2023) from three Chinese newspapers are qualitatively analysed. The results offer an overview of reference societies cited by the Chinese media, accompanied by a detailed analysis of the depictions of the US and the UK, the most frequently cited. These reference societies serve to situate ‘China’ within global power structures that maintain colonial dynamics.