War of Words: Constructing National Images and International Relations in U.S. and Chinese News Discourses of Domestic and Foreign Protests

Abstract

In the third decade of the 21st century, the relationship between the United States and China as two economic superpowers is at its most tense since the normalization of their ties in 1979. This project examined two U.S. newspapers, The New York Times (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and two Chinese news media, The Global Times (GT) and Pengpai, and analyzed their discourses about the Hong Kong (HK) and Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests. The purpose is not only to compare coverage, but to learn how news media in the U.S. and China constructed each other’s national images when the two countries were in crises. Also, it looked at how national interests and international relations, as well as the different journalism fields in the U.S. and China, were reflected in their news coverage of the domestic protests and the overseas protests.This project analyzed a total of 582 news articles by using constructivism and Berger and Luckmann’s (1966) social construction of reality as the theoretical framework, and discourse analysis as the research method, and found that the national images the U.S. and Chinese formed of each other are not only negative but also similar. The images they constructed not only echoed their strained relations, but also their competition for a global reputation and status as a world leader. Tense Sino-U.S. relations were mirrored in the selected U.S. news coverage of the domestic and international protests, as the overseas protesters were portrayed more positively than domestic protesters, while overseas police were portrayed more negatively than domestic police. Nonetheless, the chosen Chinese news media’s negative portrayal of the overseas protesters did not merely break the ancient proverb that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” but suggested that apart from international relations, a country’s news discourse about protests might also reflect its cultural and racial background.