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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 25:1 (2026) ► pp.141–161

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Reporting the others’ speech, uncovering China’s world dream

The case of the Chinese Dream in The New York Times

ORCiD logo with link | Hunan University
Published online: 7 January 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24019.mei
Abstract
It has been over ten years since the Chinese Dream was proposed by President Xi Jinping in Xi, Jinping. 2012. “Achieving Rejuvenation Is the Dream of the Chinese People.” Qiushi, November 29. [URL]. This study investigates the representations of the Chinese Dream in The New York Times (hereafter NYT) from the perspective of speech reporting. The analysis shows that four types of sources are favored: the political elites from the Chinese government, ordinary Chinese citizens, western scholars, and Chinese news agencies. Government officials’ speech is quoted to expose the global ambition of the Chinese-Dream-associated policies or practices, while stories from the ordinary Chinese provide contradictory evidence. Scholars’ speech is to warn audiences of the Chinese government’s global aspirations masked by the Chinese Dream. The reports and practices of Chinese news agencies are labeled propaganda to strangle potential discursive competition. In effect, all converge to strengthen and validate China’s world dream representation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Chinese Dream in international contexts
    • 2.2Speech reporting as a news-making discursive resource
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Material
    • 3.2The annotation
    • 3.3A synergy of quantitative frequency analysis and qualitative discourse studies
  • 4.The multivocality of the sources
  • 5.The uniformity of the speech
    • 5.1Spotlighting the global significance
    • 5.2Unveiling the political rhetoric
    • 5.3Whistleblowing the potential risks
    • 5.4Making propaganda efforts
  • 6.Uncovering China’s World Dream
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Disclosure statement
  • Note
  • References
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