How China Daily Uses Defensive Soft Power in its Articles About the Hong Kong Protests
Author
Westergaard, Mette Marie
Term
4. term
Publication year
2020
Submitted on
2020-05-15
Pages
62
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan den kinesiske avis China Daily forsvarer Kinas nationale image i sin dækning af Hongkong-protesterne fra 2019 og frem. Undersøgelsen bygger på teorien om defensiv soft power (at beskytte et lands omdømme gennem tiltrækning og overtalelse frem for tvang) med udgangspunkt i Dylan Loh, suppleret af begrebet negativ soft power (at svække modstanderes appel ved at fremstille dem i et negativt lys). Som analytisk værktøj anvendes Norman Faircloughs kritiske diskursanalyse, der ser på, hvordan sprog former betydning og magt, gennem tre niveauer: beskrivelse (teksten), fortolkning (hvordan den produceres og forstås) og forklaring (den bredere sociale kontekst). Datagrundlaget er 60 artikler fra China Daily fra en uge i november, hvor avisens dækning af protesterne tiltog. Artiklerne blev kategoriseret for at identificere, hvad avisen opfatter som angreb på Kinas image. To emner fyldte mest: at USA gjorde Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 til lov, og at den prodemokratiske lejr vandt flertallet af pladser ved lokale valg i Hongkong frem for den proetablerede lejr. Analysen viser, at China Daily bruger positive og negative ordvalg og aktive sætningskonstruktioner til at signalere, hvem der er modstander, og hvem læserne bør sympatisere med. USA, demonstranterne og den prodemokratiske lejr beskrives gennemgående negativt, mens Hongkongs regering, den proetablerede lejr og politiet beskrives positivt. Set gennem soft power-rammen kan denne sproglige indramning både fungere som negativ soft power ved at miskreditere dem, der opfattes som angribere af Kinas image, og som defensiv soft power ved at fremhæve hjemlige institutioner som legitime, stabile og velstandsskabende. På den måde præsenteres kritik som uberettiget og national samhørighed kan styrkes.
This thesis examines how the Chinese newspaper China Daily defends China’s national image in its coverage of the Hong Kong protests from 2019 onward. The study draws on the concept of defensive soft power (protecting a country’s reputation through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion), following Dylan Loh, and supplements it with negative soft power (reducing opponents’ appeal by casting them in a negative light). As an analytical approach, it applies Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA), which studies how language shapes meaning and power across three levels: description (the text), interpretation (how it is produced and understood), and explanation (the wider social context). The dataset consists of 60 China Daily articles from a week in November when coverage of the protests intensified. The articles were categorized to identify what the outlet perceives as attacks on China’s image. Two topics dominated: the United States making the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 law, and the pro-democracy camp winning a majority of seats in Hong Kong’s local elections rather than the pro-establishment camp. The analysis finds that China Daily uses positive and negative wording and active sentence structures to signal who the antagonist is and whom readers should sympathize with. The United States, the protesters, and the pro-democracy camp are consistently described in negative terms, while the Hong Kong government, the pro-establishment camp, and the police are portrayed positively. Framed through soft power, these choices function both as negative soft power by discrediting those seen as attacking China’s image, and as defensive soft power by presenting domestic institutions as legitimate, stable, and prosperity-producing. In doing so, criticism is presented as unfounded and national cohesion may be reinforced.
[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]
Keywords
Documents