 | American Political Discourse on China Subjects: Area Studies; Communication Studies; Humanities; Language & Literature; Politics & International Relations; Intercultural Communication; Political Communication; Rhetoric; International Relations; Asian Studies; Media & Film Studies; Language & Linguistics; International Politics; Chinese Studies; Media & Communications; Discourse Analysis; American Politics; Journalism & Professional Media; Despite the U.S. and China's shared economic and political interests, distrust between the nations persists. How does the United States rhetorically navigate its relationship with China in the midst of continued distrust? This book pursues this question by rhetorically analyzing U.S. news and political discourse concerning the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and the 2014-2015 Chinese cyber espionage controversy. It finds that memory frames of China as the yellow peril and the red menace have combined to construct China as a threatening red peril. Red peril characterizations revive and revise yellow peril tropes of China as a moral, political, economic and military threat by imbuing them with anti-communist ideology. Tracing the origins, functions, and implications of the red peril, this study illustrates how historical representations of the Chinese threat continue to limit understanding of U.S.-Sino relations by keeping the nations' relationship mired in the past. Michelle Murray Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. Her research has appeared in a variety of journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. |
