China’s Image in the GCC Mainstream English Newspapers: A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper used the corpus-based critical discourse analysis to explore China’s image represented in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) mainstream English newspapers between 2010 and 2020. Findings show that China is usually reported in a very positive light. Cooperation is the main tone of diplomatic relations between China and the GCC. They have signed a series of strategic cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding to strengthen a comprehensive and long-term bilateral strategic partnership. Moreover, China is depicted as the GCC’s important trading partner, which is very strong in the economic power and plays an important role in the world economic system. A strong economic complementarity and the historical friendly relations between the two sides are the main contributing factors for the positive representations of China in their mainstream English newspapers. However, the stereotyped “China as a Demon” image in the Western media is occasionally constructed in the GCC English newspapers because of the Western news agencies’ domination of the flow of international news through the Arab media and private ownership of the daily newspapers in the GCC states.

KEYWORDS:

• China’s image; corpus linguistics; critical discourse analysis; English newspapers; the GCC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China: [Grant Number 20XJC740001].