ABSTRACT

Since the start of China’s rise, the country has witnessed a plethora of transformations on the economic, political and societal levels. In the field of communications, for example, new dynamics have changed the face of the Chinese media landscape in terms of commercial liberalization, internationalization of telecommunication operations, technological advancements, and diversification of information in content as well as style. These transformations in mass media altered the mode and instruments of political communication in China and the state/society relationship (Lee, 2009; Stockman, 2012; Yang, 2011). Yet, it appears that tone, content and discursive strategies in political news reports about sensitive issues, such as national security and sovereignty, have not undergone this transformational trend in the Chinese state news media, since they are still under strict control by the central leaders via the Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department. Similarly, although new ideologies or slogans may appear with each new generation of leaders, the orthodoxy of the Party’s discursive authority is still in place as a legitimation tool for its continued leadership (Cao, 2014).