Structure and Dynamics of Chinese-Language Studies on the Russo-Ukrainian War
A Bibliometric Analysis of the CNKI Database (2014–2025)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19225992 |
|---|---|
| Authors | V Kiktenko (0000-0002-0078-4285, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 2026 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The World of the Orient (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1608-0599 • E-ISSN: 1682-5268 |
| Publisher | National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Co. LTD Ukrinformnauka) (Publications) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.15407/orientw2026.02.029 |
| OpenAlex | W7163985073 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
The article examines the structure and dynamics of scholarly discourse in China regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War, using materials from the leading Chinese CNKI database for the period 2014–2025. Given China’s growing role in international politics and the need to analyze domestic expert assessments that are developing in parallel with Beijing’s official statements, this work is important for understanding how Chinese perception of events is formed. It represents one of the first attempts to apply bibliometric methods to corpora of Chinese-language scholarly publications in Ukrainian Sinology. The study identifies thematic trends, chronology, disciplinary specialization, and institutional affiliations of these discourses, and traces their evolution. The research methods combine bibliometric and scientometric approaches. Among them: term frequency analysis, comparative analysis, thematic modeling, analysis of correlation matrices between primary and secondary headings, analysis of the sectoral structure of research and institutional representation, and elements of content analysis as well. Three phases of publication activity were identified (2014–2015; 2016–2021; 2022–2025), with a peak of 1,162 publications in 2022 – a figure that substantially exceeds the previous eight years. The study distinguishes seven main thematic clusters (actors; conflict and crisis; geopolitics and strategy; security; international relations; economy and sanctions; regions and systemic impact) and five secondary ones (actors / regional dimension; bilateral relations; geopolitics; energy and food security; security, military affairs, and information war). An uneven ratio of references to Russia versus Ukraine (54:370) was recorded, as was the predominance of the terms “conflict” and “crisis” over the word “war” (533:493:20), which is consistent with the official rhetoric of the People’s Republic of China. Applied research are found to be the most common (53.53 %), and publications are concentrated in 54 issues associated with research institutions, universities, and think tanks. The findings support the thesis about the limited independence of Chinese scholarly discourse on war and its dependence on Beijing’s foreign policy course, which is of great importance for the development of Ukraine’s strategies in the fields of international relations and information
Bibliometrics · China · Dynamics (music) · Geopolitics · Ranking (information retrieval) · Thematic analysis · Thematic map · Thematic structure · Ukrainian · Economic and Business Development Strategies · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Ukrainian Cultural and Linguistic Studies
How to conduct a bibliometric analysis
‘Global Transformation’
Coverage of the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine in scientific works
China’s Discursive Strategic Neutrality Position in the Russo-Ukrainian War
The study of Chinese scholars in foreign policy analysis
Observaciones etimológicas acerca del nombre de la ciudad antigua de Chan Chan y sus estructuras arquitectónicas
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |