A Discursive Approach to China's Role in Global Public Health Governance: News Values Constructed in the News Discourse of COVID-19 of 2020

• Author: Ranran Zhang & Tianyu Huang
• Position: Ph.D., Assistant Professor of School of Foreign Studies at East China University of Political Science and Law/Master candidate in School of Journalism at Fudan University
• Pages: 136-156

Discursive Approach to China’s Role in Global Public

Health Governance: News Values Constructed in the News

Discourse of COVID-19 of 2020

Ranran Zhang & Tianyu Huang1

Abstract: A discursive approach to China’s role in global or international affairs

has still been under-explored despite its significance in international relations and

international communications. This article, based on a corpus of news discourse,

examines how China’s role in dealing with the global public health crisis is pictured

in the news values constructed through the news discourse. The corpus comprises the

news reports of COVID-19 in 2020 (from January to December) in The Economist,

containing more than 0.2 million words. Two important concordance lines for the

study are extracted with corpus tools for a detailed attitude analysis within the

framework of appraisal. Patterns of attitude choices are interpreted through the lens of

news values constructed through discourse. It is found that the global crisis

COVID-19 is construed as a news event with significant effects and consequences

(the value of impact), especially in the economic field through the frequent attitudinal

choices of appreciation, the categories of reaction and valuation in particular. For

China’s performance (including its elite and non-elite) in this global crisis, while the

value of positivity established through the positive capacity and tenacity in the

discourse indicates it is somehow praised, some aspects especially concerning its elite

are still doubted or even criticized, as observed from the value of negativity construed

through the repeated attitudinal choices of negative propriety and veracity as well as

the negative affect. By figuring out the hidden stance or ideology in western media as

well as the possible reasons, the investigation of China’s role to news values informs

a comprehensive understanding of China in the eyes of others. Moreover, this article

provides new insights into the optimization of China’s international communication

strategies including the external publicity of its role or model in global governance.

Keywords: China’s Role in Global Governance; COVID-19; News Values;

Corpus-based Study; Appraisal System

1. Introduction

The problemata of global governance may be simply stated: The evolution of

institutions of international governance has lagged behind the rapid emergence of

collective problems with on-border and cross-border dimensions, especially those that

are global in scope or potentially so.2In globalization, there is a growing number of

global issues that cannot be settled by a single county and need political cooperation

among different countries or regions. Then global governance, defined as “the

complex of formal and informal institutions, mechanisms, relationships, and processes

1The first author: Ranran Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor o f School of Foreign Studies at Ea st

China University of Political Science and Law ; the second author: Tianyu Huang, master candidate in

School of Journalism at Fudan University. This article is supported by National Social Science Fund of

China & Research Program of East China University of Political Scienc e and Law named “A

Diachronic Study on the Discursive Reconstruction of Procedural Justice in Criminal Trials in China”

(NO.19CYY015 & NO.19HZK024).

2See Ramesh Thakur & Luk Van Langenhove, Enhancing Glob al Governance through Regional

Integration, 12(3) Global Governance 233, 2 33-40 (2006).

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between and among states, markets, citizens and organizations, both inter-and

non-governmental, through which collective interests on the global plane are

articulated, rights and obligations are established, and differences are mediated”,3

becomes a recurring theme around the world. Academically, global governance has

been greatly discussed in the field of government law, public administration and

international relations (Table 1). Research concerns include security,4environment,5

legitimacy,6and so on.

Table 1: Top 10 Fields of the Research Articles Related to Global

Governance-based WOS (Core Collection) (2017-2021)7

Rank

Research Areas

Record Count

1

Government Law

562

2

Public Administra tion

414

3

International Rela tions

411

4

Business Economic s

213

5

Environmental Sciences Ecology

213

6

Geography

166

7

Social Sciences Othe r Topics

132

8

Sociology

121

9

Health Care Scienc es Services

63

10

Public Environmental Occupational Health

52

With China’s rapid rise, a great deal of research on China and global governance

appears domestically.8A brief review of foreign literature on global governance

(Table 2) reveals that although there are studies on China and global governance,9

3Ibid.

4See Christian Bueger & Timothy Edmunds, Pragmatic ordering: Informality, Experimentation, an d

the Maritime Security Agenda, 47(2) Review of Internati onal Studies 1, 1-21 (2021); Andrea M.

Collins, Empowerment, Rights, and Global Food Governance: Gender in the UN Committe e for World

Food Security, https://doi.org/10.1 080/14747731.2021.1877006 (accessed on December 28, 2021); Rita

Abrahamsen & Michael C. Williams, Security Beyond the State: Global Security Assemblages in

International Politics, 3(1) International Political Sociology 1, 1-17 (2009).

5See Frank Biermann & Ingrid Boas, Preparing fo r A Warmer World: Towards a Global Go vernance

System to Protect Climate Refugees, 10(1) Global Envi ronmental Politics 60, 60-88 (2010 ); Vicor

Galaz & Beatrice Crona et al., Polyc entric Systems and Interacting Planetary Boundarie s-Emerging

Governance of Climate Change-oce an Acidification-marine Biodiversity, 81(3) E cological Economics

21, 21-32 (2012).

6See Steven Bernstein & Benjamin Cashore, Can Non-state Global Governance be Legitimate? An

Analytical Framework, 1(4) Regulation & Gover nance 347, 347-71 (2007).

7The retrieval results were got with “global governance” as the retrieve theme. See https://www.webo

fscience.com/wos/a lldb/analyze-re sults/70070f79-de0 9-4674-98e3-70a6 862e3af1-064db4fb (acc essed

on August 31, 2021).

8See Xiaoming Wu, Is the “Chinese Solution” Opening up A New Type o f Civilization in Global

Governance?, 18(10) Social Sciences in China 5, 5-16 (2017); Mengzi Fu & Yang Chen, Thoughts o n

China’s Participation in Global Ocean Governance under the Centennial Change, 41(4)Contemporary

International Relations 1, 1-9 (2021); Lixin Hao & Kanglin Zhou, Building a Community with A

Shared Future for Mankind: China’s Solution to Global Governance, 28(6) Marxism & Reality 1, 1-7

(2017); Fan Liao, Interpretation and Constructi on of A Community with A Shared Fu ture for Mankind

in the Context of Global Governance, 3 5(5) China Legal Science 41, 41-60 (2018).

9See Jing Gu & John Humphrey et al., Global Governance a nd Developing Countries: The

Implications of the Rise of China, 36(2) W orld Development 274, 274-92 ( 2008); Deborah W. Larson

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