First NCNA data chart: Kampuchea dominates Vietnam coverage during Deng Xiaoping era

As promised, I've produced some graphs of the NCNA data I gathered for my thesis.

The first one below charts New China News Agency (新華社) English Service news items that mention Vietnam-related terms plus one other set of terms: Kampuchea (K, the dark blue line) Laos (L, magenta) the USSR/Russia (S, yellow) the U.S. (U, light blue) the U.N. and related agencies (I, purple) and ASEAN (A, brown).

Each line charts the V+1 variable combinations as a percent of all NCNA items that mention Vietnam, spanning Deng Xiaoping's (鄧小平) de-facto leadership (late 1970s to early 1990s). In other words, in the mid-1980s, more than 80% of all NCNA items that mentioned Vietnam also mentioned Kampuchea, but less than 10% mentioned Laos. (The combinations are not exclusive). You can download the full-sized PDF of the chart here.



I'll throw in a little analysis, too: There is a strong correlation between Vietnam and Kampuchea in the data: Between 1979 and 1989, more than 65% of all items that mentioned Vietnam also mentioned Kampuchea (when measured by year). Between 1980 and 1985 it was over 80%. The correlation was expected -- Vietnam occupied Kampuchea during this period, something that angered China very much -- but the prominence among all Vietnam-related items was a bit surprising. Not surprisingly, as soon as Vietnam withdrew from Kampuchea in 1989, the number of items that also mentioned Kampuchea dropped sharply.

I'll share some more charts this weekend or next week.