A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Trump’s China-Related Political Discourses

Abstract

Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper explores the concentrated focus of Trump’s China-related political discourses as well as the covert ideology of the same. Based on corpus-driven text mining tools KH Coder and Antconc, the paper found Trump’s concentrated focus on trade, Trump-Xi relationship and Korean Peninsula. Trump administration has taken a hard-line and cautious stance toward China. Trump administration’s strategies toward China reflect isolationism and protectionism. This paper provides a new linguistic angle for studies on Sino-U.S. relations process.