The identity China has shaped in the fight against COVID-19: A comparative discourse study

Rongcheng Pan; Huiwen Yao

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19637

The identity China has shaped in the fight against COVID-19: A comparative discourse study

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 31;9(9):e19637. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19637. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Rongcheng Pan¹, Huiwen Yao²

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Studies, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China.
² School of Foreign Studies, Suqian University, Suqian, 223800, China.

Abstract

By conducting a comparative discourse analysis of the news reports in China Daily and news releases by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of China on COVID-19 prevention and control, this paper aims to reveal the identity China has shaped in the fight against COVID-19. Epidemic-related news materials were firstly collected on the official websites of China Daily and the MFA of China, and then the representative news items were selected as the research corpus according to the principles of relevance and representativeness. The methods of critical discourse analysis and comparative study were adopted to analyze the selected news items. It was found that the epidemic-related news reports in China Daily have constructed the national identity of a responsible power for China from the perspective of fighting the epidemic and maintaining domestic and international public health security, and this national identity is consistent with the one publicized to the international community through diplomatic channels.

Keywords: Anti-Epidemic policy; COVID-19; China Daily; National identity; News report.