Geopolitical currents and contested science: Chinese media framing and politicization of the Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge

This study investigates how Chinese media politicize the Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge by integrating computational analysis with qualitative interpretation across 14,126 news articles (2021–2023). Focusing on frames, discursive strategies, and actor configurations, the analysis shows that highly politicized frames – emphasizing responsibility attribution, diplomatic confrontation, and international conflict – dominate news coverage. Discursively, reports transform scientific uncertainty into political symbolism, using credibility disputes, procedural doubts, and selective emphasis on long-term risks to legitimize predetermined geopolitical positions. Actor networks further reveal a structural reliance on political elites while marginalizing scientific expertise. These patterns reflect China’s hierarchical media system, whose top-down information flows homogenize narratives and channel scientific ambiguity toward unified ideological reinforcement. The findings demonstrate how politicization operates under a non-competitive party system, showing that scientific uncertainty becomes a strategic resource shaped by structural media constraints.