I broadly agree with both of you on the nature of coverage in mainstream Western [1] generalist publications about topics on India and China (but also Southeast

I broadly agree with both of you on the nature of coverage in mainstream Western [1] generalist publications about topics on India and China (but also Southeast Asia and Africa, to a point). In my observation, a lot of the coverage on those parts of the world is hollow and lacks sophisticated contextualization along a variety of local and global concerns. If local concerns are noted, it's either an echo of popular Western concern, or some jarring evocation of culture shock and poverty porn. Notable exceptions include the BBC, who take better care to explain local concerns in greater depth, although they do so in a characteristically terse style that doesn't play well among the New York Times or The Atlantic crowd. [1] Western here is a byword for US, UK, CA, AU, NZ in the Anglosphere, but also some of the similarly leaning publications in Europe publishing in English.