Posted October 21, 1995
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STRUCTURED PERCEPTIONS OF CHINA-U.S. RELATIONS
John M. Bublic
Kent State University
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Abstract: China-U.S. relations are changing fast after the |
| Cold War and thus the importance of understanding the way we view |
| each other grows. However, as each country deals with each oth- |
| ers' differences, the areas of contention highlight the work that |
| needs to be done. This paper compares the perceptions of Chinese |
| and American students toward China-U.S. issues, highlighting the |
| differences and similarities among them. Differences have been |
| found through content analysis studies, but these have imposed |
| predetermined categories upon the data to define discourses. Re- |
| quired is a new approach or methodology that can objectively un- |
| cover discourses relating to perceptions and beliefs. By |
| utilizing Q methodology, discourses can be uncovered without pre- |
| determining the outcome. Commentary made in relation to China-U.S |
| relations by the media in both countries will constitute the raw |
| materials from which Chinese and American students will rank order |
| issues through the use of the Q technique, i.e., by arranging in- |
| dividual statements about China-U.S. relations from those most im- |
| portant to those least important. Factor analysis of these |
| separate viewpoints will help identify alternative perspectives, |
| and will therefore illuminate whatever differences exist in the |
| perceptions Chinese and American students have concerning |
| China-U.S. relations. Not only will distinctions be refined |
| through the use of Q methodology, but similarities among various |
| discourses can be highlighted to further understand where agree- |
| ment lies among them. |
| |
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This study takes a look at differences and similarities existing
between Chinese and U.S. college students when it comes to making news
judgments about issues relating to U.S.-China relations. The importance
of this study lies in its emphasis on the varying discourses that exist
when individuals from different cultures choose what is newsworthy about
the same issue. Through an objective approach to the study of subjec-
tivity, that is Q methodology, the resulting patterned differences ex-
isting among these two cultures argue strongly for a culturally based
media hegemony theory rather than a homogenized view of news values--one
that stresses divergence arising from cultural backgrounds, rather than
a consensus about what issues are newsworthy.
The unique quality of this study lies in its scientific examination
of this complex issue, offering a more objective and less tedious ap-
proach than content analyses and a focus on a much-ignored aspect of the
media hegemony thesis, i.e., non-journalists, who are quite able to make
news judgments and reflect their cultures' normative differences. The
economic relationship between the United States and China is chosen for
examination because it is the cornerstone of their bilateral relation-
ship.
The analysis uncovers the underlying structure of "the order of
things" to understand the issues that each side finds most newsworthy
and thus provides a closer look at why conflict may continue between the
countries as one media discourse emphasizes economic growth while others
emphasize human rights. Antonio Gramsci's (1971) concept of hegemony is
utilized as the theoretical frame within which to analyze aspects of a
news story because it emphasizes the competing nature of discourses, al-
beit one may be preferred or dominant. The media hegemony literature
frames the research design and leads to the introduction of the Q
method, addressing the shortcomings of past studies, which utilized con-
tent analysis and focused solely on the work of journalists.
Gramsci's Hegemony and the Media
Many studies show the uniformity of news stories across the country
(Tuchman, 1978; Fishman, 1980). These studies highlight the fact that
news conventions have been socially constructed through the demand for
daily news and profits. Through this process of gathering and present-
ing news, what is considered newsworthy has become commonplace and
taken-for-granted (Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1984). A common news discourse
has become dominant partly due to the media's ongoing presentation of
news. However, these studies examine discourses in relation to individ-
uals rooted in the same culture, and thus comparative studies are re-
quired to examine this question. Would there be any differences, for
example, between news discourses utilized by individuals from China?
Gramsci's hegemony is useful in this case because he stressed an
ongoing process in which hegemony must continually accommodate and
struggle with other discourses that could significantly change
hegemony's parameters. Adair (1988) says, "The concept of hegemony does
not only refer to a direct manipulation of images and messages, but
rather acknowledges the contradictions, antagonisms and fragmentations
associated with perpetually incomplete domination" (p. 16). This point
is crucial because it means that one ideology or discourse does not pre-
clude the existence of other discourses, but competes with them, chang-
ing and accommodating with new and ongoing challenges (Hebdige, 1986;
Hall, 1985, 1986).
The competition of various ideologies or discourses is best exam-
ined through the media, which have become one of the most important
sources of ideological domination. Gitlin (1980) concludes:
Of all the institutions of daily life, the media specialize in
orchestrating everyday consciousness--by virtue of their
pervasiveness, their accessibility, their centralized symbolic
capacity.... To put it simply: the mass media have become
core systems for the distribution of ideology.(pp. 1-2)
Despite the plurality of meanings of news items, the media hegemony the-
sis argues that "one set of meanings tends to get preferred and offered
to the viewers, over the others, as the most appropriate. This 'prefer-
ring' is the site of considerable ideological labor performed by
newspeople and consumers" (Goldman and Rajagopal, 1991, p. 29). Accord-
ingly, by presenting subjects with statements of a news story, which
will represent various discourses relevant to the media hegemony litera-
ture, and by asking them to make news judgments in creating the struc-
ture of a news story, it is possible to examine which statements are
emphasized and which are de-emphasized when individuals make news judg-
ments.
Carragee (1993) says that researchers exploring the media hegemony
thesis ought "to examine news texts as sites of struggle between con-
flicting discourses," and should address the following questions: "What
is the relative prominence granted to particular discourses and
meanings? What alternative discourses and meanings are excluded from
news texts?" (p. 342). Accordingly, a methodology that can present
various perspectives to respondents who choose between them will offer a
solution to understanding news media discourses.
There are many cross-national studies comparing news judgments
among journalists, but these are accomplished through content analysis,
which predetermines the categories used to analyze data. Van den Berg
and Van der Veer (1989) assert, "Content analysis is not capable to ana-
lyze communications as discourses" (p. 161). Content analyses are fun-
damentally limited because they succeed or fail depending upon the
categories used. Scholars assume the coding of various occurrences that
can be used to construct a discourse (Molotoch and Lester, 1974).
Carragee (1993) asserts that a methodology must be utilized that "does
not assume, but documents, the various discourses, from the news" (p.
343). Yet, there are no studies that have documented the various dis-
courses relating to the media without _assuming_ that particular posi-
tions would be found in the data. Gans (1972) warns that methods need
to be utilized that are not tedious, but have results, and he is crit-
ical of popular content analysis studies, writing that this method "only
identifies the researcher's perception of the content" (p. 698). Seaman
(1992) aptly writes:
Certain patterns of reasoning found in (content analysis)
studies...reveal more the disposition of the investigator than
any compelling argument or evidence. A common rhetorical
strategy of active audience theorists is familiar from the
courts. One constructs an interpretation, a narrative or sce-
nario that is consistent with the "facts" presented from the
"field investigations" and the scenario's plausibility is al-
lowed to rest solely on its coherence with those "facts."(p.
302)
Also, comparison of one newspaper's output with another's does not
answer the question as to what has been systematically excluded from all
sources (Peterson, 1976). This study, however, includes statements that
are usually excluded in one country or the other, or at least de-
emphasized, and thus participating individuals make a conscious decision
to choose one statement over another, resulting in a discourse that lit-
erally can be said to be preferred over others.
Past studies have neglected also whether non-journalists are ac-
cepting the underlying structure of news presentations, which is the key
point of whether dominant discourses exist and whether distinctive ones
exist because of cultural differences. Beyond whether Chinese and
American media organizations report the news differently, this study
wishes to examine whether individuals from different cultures define
what is newsworthy differently. The question this study wishes to an-
swer is: If you gave statements about a single news story to individ-
uals from two different cultures about the relations between their two
countries, how would they write the story and what statements would they
prefer over others? This question has never been properly answered in
other studies.
Morley (1980) says that understanding how individuals view the con-
struction of a news story is important to understanding the dominant
discourse. He writes:
The important point is that while an audience may retain lit-
tle, in terms of specific information, they may well retain
general "definitions of the order of things," ideological cat-
egories embedded in the structure of the specific content.(p.
8)
The communication process is only completed once media audiences have
interpreted the news text. Although journalists may construct the news
story, the question remains whether non-journalists accept the general
definitions of the order of things, which is key to understanding the
point at which hegemony is accepted or rejected. Philo (1990) writes:
Of course not all news offers a single, coherent way of inter-
preting events and not all audiences would accept the pre-
ferred interpretation. The news may offer contradictory
accounts, or be confusing or simply irrelevant to the audi-
ence. But to the extent that the news is organized within
specific ways of understanding, it is important to develop a
methodology which reveals what these are.(p. 162)
Two studies have incorporated the abilities of non-journalists to coor-
dinate news stories in a coherent manner and each conclude that non-
journalists understand similar patterns in the news, no matter what the
individual's socio-economic and cultural background. Individuals in
Philo's (1990) study were asked to imagine they were journalists writing
a story about a miners' strike, after looking at a set of pictures,
which they were able to do without any trouble. Philo concludes that
individuals have learned the structure of news stories rather well and
political views shape how individuals approach stories, especially in
writing them. This study comes very close to tapping into the struc-
tural aspects of news writing that people accept as a taken-for-granted
reality; however, Philo utilized content analysis and entails all of the
problems discussed earlier. Bublic (1995), utilizing Q methodology,
asks non-journalists as well to write a news story and the results il-
lustrate their ability to formulate coherent news stories. However,
while a news consensus may exist, Peterson (1976) notes, within that
area of agreement there is reason to expect some divergence of perspec-
tives among individuals because of their cultural differences.
Q Methodology
In many respects, the methodological call issued by Philo, Morley,
Seaman, Van den Berg and Van der Meer is answered by Q methodology,
which focuses on an individual's beliefs, values and judgments. In con-
junction with Gramsci's hegemony, Q methodology presents respondents
with a situation in which they explicitly choose among statements re-
flecting various points of view. One point of view is dominant over
others. Through factor analysis, a respondent's Q sort, which is the
resulting arrangement of statements along a continuum, can be statis-
tically compared with others who complete Q sorts under the same condi-
tion of instruction. From this process, the notion of preferring, based
upon a subjective understanding of a news story, can be examined. The Q
technique thus creates a situation in which Gramsci's concept of
hegemony, or struggle and dominance of ideology, can manifest itself in
an experimental situation.
This study focuses on U.S.-China economic relations, particularly
development news. Comments made in relation to U.S.-China economic re-
lations by the media and media theorists will constitute the raw materi-
als from which individuals from China and the United States will
construct their own news stories through the use of the Q technique,
that is, by arranging individual statements about U.S.-China economic
relations into coherent accounts of it, much as reporters would do.
Factor analysis of these separate stories will reveal various journalis-
tic discourses (if they exist), and will therefore illuminate the cul-
tural differences and similarities that exist among discourses.
First, sets of statements reflecting three perspectives--the domi-
nant, negotiated and oppositional discourses--relating to U.S.-China
economic relations are gathered, representing a concourse (Stephenson,
1978). To reflect one of the most important critiques in media hegemony
studies, these three perspectives are broken down into two more catego-
ries, the personalized and institutional categories. All five of these
categories will be explained in more depth below. The resulting matrix,
which organizes the statements and helps equally distribute them, is the
2 x 3 framework below (All of the statements, within each category, are
listed in the Appendix):
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
| | Personalized | Institutional |
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
| Oppositional | a | b |
| (disorder) | | |
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
| Negotiated | c | d |
| (ambiguous) | | |
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
| Dominant | e | f |
| (order) | | |
+---------------+----------------+-------------------+
Although media hegemony studies have not highlighted how
oppositional news is made, they have distinguished discourses to some
extent, and thus the literature concerning media hegemony will inform
the construction of the Q design. By utilizing what has been published
and said about U.S.-China economic relations, and what can be gleaned
from the criticisms of what was reported, a range of statements or
concourse develops that represents the variety of ways that news about
U.S.-China economic relations can be reported.
One difficulty in constructing the statements is that media
hegemony theorists say the press reports certain aspects of a news event
while it builds "its narratives around a series of tacit cultural as-
sumptions" (Goldman and Rajagopal, 1991, p. 209). Adair (1988) says,
"The reproduction of a hegemonic ideology is a consequence of what is
absent from [the news media]" (p. 28). The cultural assumptions that
will be included in this study include those that define a dichotomy of
interests--those supporting the status quo and those that theorists have
said are opposed to it. Those supporting the status quo fall under the
category of the dominant ideology. The dominant discourse has been
highlighted by media hegemony studies and can broadly be described as
emphasizing system-supporting news and de-emphasizing system-debasing
news. Gans (1980) says that the dominant discourse constantly seeks re-
solutions to disorder and promotes order. The dominant discourse is
characterized by statements reflecting the views of government officials
and other authority figures (Fishman, 1988; Tuchman, 1978), and accept-
ing order as a societal norm (Gans 1980).
The oppositional discourse reflects a critique of the capitalist
system and the unequal distribution of wealth and disorder caused by the
system. Those statements representing the oppositional news usually ex-
plain address underlying institutional or contextual relationships. The
negotiated discourse will represent more ambiguously written statements
that take into consideration issues that are not clearly in the dominant
or oppositional discourses. According to Hall (1980), a negotiated dis-
course may lean toward the dominant discourse in some respects, but al-
lows for some deviance. The negotiated discourse, he explains,
generally acknowledges the legitimacy of hegemonic definitions, but at a
more situational level "it makes its own ground rules--it operates with
exceptions to the rule" (p. 137). These categories and the statements
will be explained in more detail below.
Personalized and Institutional Statements
The three categories--dominant, negotiated and oppositional--are
broken into two primary frameworks--Personalized and Institutional
statements. Personalized statements focus on individuals in news re-
ports, while Institutional statements focus on institutions or other
structural aspects of a story. Personalized statements are most often
seen in the media and include statements by quoted government officials
and others who are the focus of a news event. Rucinski (1992) explains
that reporters tend "to focus on individual actors and human interest
angles rather than institutional factors or structural relationships
when describing political phenomena and social issues" (p. 91).
Carey (1986) points out that "names make the news, and explanations
in the news pretty much come down to the motives of actors in the poli-
tical drama" (p. 156). Bennett (1988) says, "Personalized news can be
defined as the journalistic bias that gives preference to the individual
actors and human interest angles in events while down-playing institu-
tional and political considerations that establish the social contexts
for those events" (p. 26). Personalized and Institutional statements
relate to a fundamental argument in the social sciences, which is the
agent-structure debate. Statements that personalize news events imply
that "personification of sociopolitical problems results in the percep-
tion among audience members that those portrayed as victims in news
accounts...are in some sense ultimately responsible for both their pre-
dicaments and their accomplishments" (Rucinski, 1992, p. 94). Goldman
and Rajagopal (1991) say,
Occurrences appear to emanate from the individual's actions,
thereby absorbing the institutional forces. In this way, per-
sonalizing stories ideologically conceals the actual context
that is determinant.(p. 165)
Goldman and Rajagopal (1991) highlight the notion that "Every frame se-
lected to tell about the strike precludes the inclusion of some other
frame" (p. 105). The frames that they believe are absent relate to
management-capital relations, market and commodity relations, and whose
side the state is on. These issues concern systemic and contextually-
oriented angles of a news story, which hegemonists argue usually do not
appear in daily newspapers.
Although media hegemonists generally say that the tendency to per-
sonalize news lends support to hegemony because it neglects the institu-
tional forces that underlie events, statements can be created that
support the status quo while utilizing institutional issues, and the
same can be said for personalizing an issue, such as a statement by a
worker in China that illustrates the negative effects of the process of
opening markets, rather than the entrepreneural spirit. Another exam-
ple of how a Personalized statement can be written to reflect an
oppositional discourse is to highlight the hierarchical nature of those
being interviewed. Goldman and Rajagopal (1991) assert, "Where there
exists a clearly defined status hierarchy, deference is given to the
higher-status interviewee" (p. 119). Also, Rucinski (1992) says, "In
both positive ('good news') and negative ('bad news') stories, the words
and actions of elites make news more frequently than do either common
folk or structural explanations." The oppositional quality of a work-
er's quote can also lie in the worker's personal suffering. Bruck
(1989), referring to the suffering of war victims that is seen on tele-
vision news broadcasts, says, "Its power lies not with the status of its
authors nor with the truth function of its content but with its close
links to irreducible reality" (p. 122). Accordingly, authority figures
will be in the dominant and negotiated discourses, while others such as
workers and oppositional groups will be in the oppositional and negoti-
ated discourse.
The Statements
Since the mid-1970s when Deng Xiaoping gained power in China and
especially during the early 1990s, open markets have been the most im-
portant goal for the government, and it seems there is no turning back.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party has placed a high premium on pol-
itical control. Yu (1994) writes, "The message put across to the nation
appears to be loud and clear: concentrate on getting rich and forget
about politics" (p. 24). Bill Clinton criticized President George Bush
during the 1992 presidential campaign for giving China most-favored na-
tion status, yet has continued a similar policy since becoming presi-
dent. Since the end of the Cold War, the top priority for U.S.-China
relations has been unquestionably the ongoing pursuit of open trade re-
lations, while other issues are considered dependent upon this economic
relationship. Accordingly, the following categories are broken into
sections that reflect the dominant theme of both governments and the
oppositional news that highlights the negative implications of open mar-
kets, and frames the news in terms of capital and exploitation. Other
statements, in the negotiated category, are discussed below to under-
stand the structure of the Q design.
Dominant/Personalized Statements
News conventions, Gans (1980) writes, predispose reporters to re-
port news events from the viewpoint of leaders, even if there is no
clear leadership emerging from a social movement or a news event. Sup-
port for the status quo is gained partly through reliance on officials
and established experts as sources. Journalistic professionalism helps
sustain the status quo by overrelying on the information subsidy offered
by government officials and others holding power (Gandy, 1982; Gans,
1980; Schudson, 1978). Peterson (1981) writes, "Elites possess a na-
tural salience--by definition they enjoy a prominence above the mass"
(p. 145). Many other studies have substantiated this finding (Dunn,
1969; Epstein, 1973; Sande, 1971). Accordingly, some of the statements
are attributed to authority figures, such as the following:
Bill Clinton said that the United States will continue its
Most-favored nation status with China because the country is
potentially the largest economy in the world and the United
States should not be left out.
Also, the media tend to focus on personalities, rather than structural
forces (Maggard, 1981). The big picture is left out, while personal
stories are emphasized. The following exemplifies this point:
Li Zhizhong, a farmer in the Chinese province of Guangdong,
has been successful at managing his 16 acres of farmland. His
success reflects the opportunities created by the economic re-
forms Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping began 12 years ago.
One of the reasons for defining the dominant discourse by capital-
ist trade relations is due to the fact that the governments of the
United States and China wish to emphasize this aspect of their relation-
ship, rather than others. For example, the top item on the agenda dur-
ing the 1994 summit in Seattle between the two countries is China's
drive to be admitted to the World Trade Organization. Also, the U.S.
administration has emphasized the importance of free markets between the
two countries, while de-emphasizing other aspects of its relationship,
such as China's violation of human rights and its sale of military weap-
ons, including nuclear weapons. Although the Clinton administration has
duly paid lip-service to sanctions against China because of its poor hu-
man rights record, it continues to give most-favored nation status to
China, and the statements in this category reflect this priority.
Dominant/Institutional Statements
These statements coincide with the dominant/personalized state-
ments, but they take on a less personalized connotation by emphasizing
the institutionalized aspects of the capitalist structure and its bene-
ficial implications. The world economy is moving towards a open market
system of trade and corporations represent this movement. The following
statement designates the positive aspect of trade and even responds to
the oppositional statements, which will be discussed below, by emphasiz-
ing that free trade will actually support the cause of human rights.
The heads of 800 U.S. corporations are pressing President
Clinton not to punish China with trade sanctions for its con-
tinuing human rights abuses. The U.S. executives argue that
the free market is the most subversive force to challenge
China's Communist Party.
The statements take for granted the nature of the system and emphasize
it positive consequences, just as government officials in the United
States and China have been doing for the past few years. The following
statement, from the _New York Times_, plays down the negative aspects of
trade:
The U.S. Commerce Department reported yesterday that the Amer-
ican trade deficit with China is not much of a threat to the
United States because Chinese imports pouring into the U.S.
market are not costing a lot of American jobs; they are
mostly displacing jobs in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
This statement also reflects the media's tendency to emphasize how trade
will benefit consumers, which make up the media's audience, especially
due to the underlying financial support of advertising agencies. This
angle, however, obscures the relation that workers have with capital by
ignoring the surplus labor that is used to bring down prices.
Negotiated/Personalized Statements
The underlying reason for including the negotiated category is to
dilute the dichotomy between the dominant and oppositional discourses,
such as a statement concerning a Michael Jackson concert in China.
These negotiated statements do, nonetheless, play an important role in
the study. It is important, for example, to have statements made by au-
thority figures that do not appear simply to support capitalism. This
not only dilutes the distinction in the oppositional and dominant cate-
gories, but it also highlights the significance that a particular au-
thority figure may play in news judgments, even though the information
quoted is not directly relevant to the story, such as the following:
"China's air pollution in general is serious and is worsening
with the country's rapid economic development," said Song
Jian, a Chinese environmental commissioner. "The amount of
sulphur dioxide discharge is rising annually, causing a wide
precipitation of acid rain."
During the Cold War, Taiwan played a key role between the United States
and China, but relations have now moved beyond the confines of the
superpower contest and Taiwan has subsequently commanded less attention,
while issues of trade loom much larger. The placement of a statement
concerning Taiwan seemed potentially to play an interesting role in the
study:
Some groups in the United States at a rally in Washington,
D.C., said yesterday that because Taiwan has made strides in
economic development and liberalization, the United States
should support Taiwan's application to join the World Trade
Organization and should help guard it from bullying from main-
land China.
Another issue is Tibet. The West hears continually the wishes of
the Dali Lama who wants a referendum held to move Tibet toward independ-
ence from China, while China opposes such a referendum and sees such
political rhetoric as a chance to split the mainland. Accordingly, a
statement concerning Tibet is included in the study:
"Tibet is an inseparable part of China," said Ming Radi, chair
of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan People's Congress.
"The Dali Lama's push for independence is part of a Western
attempt to split China."
Since 1989, the Tianenmen Square massacre has played a giant role
in relations between the United States and China. Year after year, how-
ever, the United States grants China most-favored nation status and con-
tinues to emphasize continued trade relations with the mainland.
Nonetheless, the media continues to report consistently about the activ-
ity of Chinese dissidents, who call for fundamental political change.
Whether dissidents are given more credibility by Americans than by
Chinese and the reasons underlying the placement of such a statement can
be examined by including the following:
Four leading Chinese dissidents who fled China after the
brutal crackdown at Tianenmen Square said the future of democ-
racy in China depends on Western nations influencing reform
through economic sanctions.
Negotiated/Institutional Statements
To dilute the dichotomy between pro-trade and anti-trade statements
is a statement by the U.S. State Department about human rights vio-
lations:
The State Department's report on human rights in China, part
of its global human rights survey issued yesterday, concludes
that China has made no progress in any major human rights area
since 1994.
The negotiated category includes statements that are not part of the
dominant discourse, but are central concerns of the countries, such as
the sale and proliferation of military technology:
The Chinese government labeled as "unjustifiable" the Clinton
administration's decision to impose economic sanctions over
China's sale of ballistic missile technology to Pakistan.
Although these statements are being placed in the negotiated category,
they will gain different, more valuable meaning alongside the placement
of other statements.
Oppositional/Personalized Statements
Bruck (1989) insists, "The victim's discourse is the truly
oppositional discourse" (p. 122). Accordingly, statements were chosen
that reflect workers' struggles against the odds and the poor conditions
they have tolerated:
With his possessions bundled in plastic, 30-year-old Ren Jun
arrived recently in Beijing hoping to land a job in the local
coal mines. He made his way to the labor market, becoming one
face in a sea of laborers for hire.
"I am frightened by U.S. corporations," says Yanbin Ming, "I
lost my job last week because IBM came to town and set up shop
here, destroying our small country's ability to compete."
Although workers may not have much credibility in making a state-
ment against capitalism, Gitlin (1980) says that elite authorities can
change the tide against dominant preconceptions, as they did during the
Vietnam War. Gitlin examined the news coverage of a protest movement
during the 1960s, describing the various stages that the movement went
through in its relationship with the news media. He says that if elite
authorities do not oppose a news event or story, the media are not
likely to write a story in an oppositional frame. Thus, a statement
that places economic trade in oppositional terms are referenced to an
elite authority figure, a professor at Harvard:
"There is a large pool of marginal people subject to the inse-
curity of having no rice bowl they can count on," said Richard
Baum, a political scientist at Harvard University. "They are
dying in grotesque industrial accidents, they are locked in
the dormitories at night, and they create a pocket of human
misery wherever they cluster."
Oppositional/Institutional Statements
Hegemonists argue that the news media do not present events within
their economic and institutional contexts, which they say would better
explain individual behavior. Accordingly, a statement is included that
tries to do just that:
Millions of Chinese workers are facing layoffs, wage cuts and
an end to bonuses as factories across China shut down as a re-
sult of the movement toward open markets and more capitalism.
U.S. corporations continue moving in to take advantage of
cheap labor, as the Chinese government moves to compete with
the West.
Goldman and Rajagopal (1991) say, "Our principal finding is that
_capital/management is invisible_ in CBS's reporting of the coal strike"
(p. 209). Placing the story in this context is an important critique of
the news media by news hegemonists. If the media would stress insti-
tutions and their flaws, critics claim, debates would be led more easily
to alternative perspectives such as socialist and communist solutions,
which media hegemonists say are now excluded. Gans (1980) writes, "So-
cialist critiques of the American economy, as well as the activities of
America's socialist parties and informal groups, are not newsworthy" (p.
48). Goldman and Rajagopal (1991) point out, "CBS news coverage rein-
forced the legitimacy of Capital, _not because it was biased against la-
bor in the traditional sense_--in fact, CBS demonstrated a kind of
"liberal sympathy" for the plight of striking workers and their
families--but because _Capital (here, the BCOA) was systematically ab-
sent_ in their reports" (p. 210, italics in the original). They con-
clude, "In these news texts, capitalism--the word--is unspeakable. It
is so thoroughly taken-for-granted that it need never be spoken" (p.
213). The consequence of this, however, is great as Goldman and
Rajagopal (1991) conclude, "the invisibility of Capital in...news ac-
counts such as this means the presence of Capital in our lives is not a
matter of public debate" (p. 210).
This unspoken character of the news media is a consistent criticism
among media hegemonists. However, it is never made clear what should be
said about capital or capitalism to place a strike in context. The fol-
lowing statement, constructed by myself, briefly sums up this sentiment.
Speaking of the 50 million migrant workers who are considered
the engine of China, a longtime Western diplomat said, "The is
the labor of an exploited lower class. There are no wage laws
to protect them, and they can be fired on a whim.
The following statement reflects the plight of workers, but also empha-
sizes the disorder caused by the transition to a market economy and the
exploited millions who are not benefiting from capitalism:
Millions of rural workers are flooding into China's cities,
where they are becoming an unstable and exploited force ramp-
ant on the fringes of the country's overcrowded and polluted
centers, where crime, corruption and unemployment are threat-
ening stability.
The ultimate purpose of the 30-item Q sample reported in the Appen-
dix is to provide respondents with an "ecological universe" of commen-
tary (Stephenson, 1953, p. 78) pertinent to U.S.-China relations, i.e.,
with a diverse sample of journalistic accounts with which respondents
can construct their own report of this relationship. The purpose of the
Q-sample structure, such as including dominant and oppositional state-
ments, is to incorporate the main theoretical ingredients of media
hegemony studies, to place respondents in a theoretical situation in
which they have to choose between conventional and alternative descrip-
tors, and to provide diversity in the materials made available to re-
spondents.
The P-Set
The respondents considered for this study, or P-set as commonly
used in Q methodology, is also organized along theoretical lines to ex-
amine the cultural perspectives for factor analysis. The P-set is a
"set of persons who are theoretically relevant to the problem under con-
sideration" (Brown, 1980, p. 192). What is of interest in this study is
the common-sense decision making or news judgments made in relation to a
news story. Respondents were chosen to highlight possible differences
in perception caused by cultural perspectives and, accordingly, Chinese
and American students were asked to participate in this study.
This study asked 13 American and 16 Chinese students (three were
from Taiwan) to sort a group of 30 statements about U.S.-China economic
relations. Q works well with small numbers of subjects (Dryzek, 1994),
and in this study it is very useful because the interest lies in the
various discourses that exist relating to a particular issue, not the
average of an entire population. Once discourses have been discovered,
adding a hundred more respondents will not add another single factor or
discourse, and thus the number of subjects must relate to whatever is
theoretically relevant to the study (Dryzek, 1994). The importance of
the perspectives of students lies in their potential as the next gener-
ation of leaders. Ruetz (1987) writes that one-third to one-half of the
world's top positions in politics, business, education, and the military
will be filled in the next 25 years by foreign students attending col-
leges and universities in the United States. The 13 American students
were best for this study because they had attended a comparative poli-
tics course and would be knowledgeable about the issues shaping
U.S.-China economic relations. From this group, the distinctive cultural
patterns of viewing the creation of news stories can be examined and
without predetermining the character of the discourses before the evi-
dence is provided directly from individuals.
Administering the Statements
Respondents were asked to write a news story with a set of thirty
statements about U.S.-China economic relations. The description was
purposely general to draw attention to a respondent's beliefs relating
to the given statements and to simulates a reporters's typical situ-
ation. Gans (1972), for example, says:
The average reporter has very little time to gather his data
and analyze his findings, little space or airtime to report
them, and unless he is a beat reporter very little prior know-
ledge about the activities and sources about which he is re-
porting. (p. 702)
Subjects were to sort the statements according to the way an aver-
age journalist would present the story, avoiding bias and remaining im-
partial, while being informative. The Q sorts were entered into a
QMethod computer software package (Atkinson, 1992) and factor analyzed,
determining the degree to which the statements are organized into coher-
ent patterns. The factors represent the ways in which the respondent-
reporters have "written" their stories alike or differently. If
prevailing journalistic practices lead to a convergence in reporting,
then a single factor will be the result, and theory would lead us to ex-
pect the factor to display marked hegemonic features. On the other
hand, if there is divergence in reporting, then multiple factors will
emerge and interest will shift to the variety of discourses, as Gramsci
anticipated, and to relations between and among those discourses that
are hegemonic and those that are non-hegemonic. Thus, the following
proposition reflects the focus of the study:
Proposition: A preferred reading that reflects the dominant ideology
will result from professional news conventions.
News judgments are ostensibly based upon certain principles, such
as objectivity, neutrality and unbiased reporting. These processes,
however, create what is termed the dominant ideology, which emphasizes
certain aspects of a story while de-emphasizing other aspects. Hall
(1972) writes:
"What is already known" is not a set of neutral facts. It is
a set of common-sense constructions and ideological interpre-
tations about the world, which holds the society together at
the level of everyday beliefs.... News values require consen-
sus knowledge about the world. (p. 78)
To examine whether individuals have internalized a common under-
standing of news making, and what comprises various perspectives, all
subjects sorted the statements in terms of the following condition of
instruction.
C: The condition of instruction is to sort the 30 Q statements ac-
cording to the perspective of a newspaper reporter from the Associated
Press. Respondents will sort the statements according to those they
deem _most_ likely to be on top of the news story to those _most_ likely
to be at the bottom of the news story, meaning that those statements on
the bottom are most likely to be edited from the story in the final ver-
sion.
Morley (1976) says that it is "significant to analyze the basic
conceptual and ideological framework through which events are presented
and as a result of which they come to be given one dominant/primary
meaning rather than another" (p. 247). The assumptions individuals make
will unfold in a comparable manner through the use of the Q-technique.
Analysis
What is most fascinating about the results of the study is that all
the Chinese students clustered around different factors than most of the
American students. Without predetermined categories to shape the way
discourses are defined, the individuals were free to choose the way the
statements were organized, and this study clearly illustrates the dis-
tinct ways that Chinese and American students view news relating to
U.S.-China economic relations. After the Q sorts were factor analyzed,
three factors or discourses resulted, which will be explained in re-
lation to the literature concerning media hegemony and development news.
(The factor scores are listed, along with the statements, in the Appen-
dix.) Generally, Factor 1 reflects the viewpoint of Chinese students
and is very conservative. Factor 2 is orthogonal to Factors 1 and 3,
and reflects the viewpoint of American students, emphasizing human
rights violations more so than Factor 1. Factor 3 is bi-polar to or
just the opposite of Factor 1, meaning that generally it emphasizes hu-
man rights issues and de-emphasizes statements that are positions taken
by Chinese officials.
To direct attention to this study's purposes, Factor 1 is labeled
the Chinese Discourse. It is not an Asian discourse because students
from Taiwan were on Factor 2, which reflected most of the American stu-
dents' point of view. For this reason and to direct attention again to
this study's purposes, Factor 2 is labeled the American Discourse. The
fact that the Taiwanese students were on the American Discourse means
that the discourse was not strictly a Western discourse, although the
fact that Taiwan has been strongly supported by the West, particularly
the United States since the end of China's civil war, reflecting the im-
portance of Western influences as sources of the Taiwanese discourse.
The surprising disparity between Chinese and Taiwanese, and of course
the American, students lends great confidence to the results of this
study. If there was a mixture of individuals in both factors, for in-
stance, it would have diluted the distinct results. But, it cannot be a
coincidence that Chinese students were leaning toward one discourse,
while American students were leaning toward another, and that students
from an American-supported country were on the same factor as the Ameri-
can students rather than the Chinese students. Other labels were con-
sidered for each discourse, such as Industrializing and Industrialized
because the Chinese discourse resembles many of the concerns raised by
critiques of developing news, which will be examined below, while the
American discourse resembles a Western perspective or one from individ-
uals living in developed countries. However, these labels were awkward
to read and they obscured this study's main focus, which is Chinese and
American students. Accordingly, for clarity's sake the labels Chinese
and American are used to identify these discourses.
While 77 % of respondents were on the Chinese and American Dis-
courses, two individuals were on Factor 3, and apparently for somewhat
different reasons, relating interestingly to cultural perspectives,
which is the main finding of this study. The Chinese student emphasized
human rights issues and de-emphasized statements by Chinese officials
because he opposed the Chinese government's policies and believed the
officials were untrustworthy, while the American student emphasized hu-
man rights issues because he was partly on the American Discourse but
de-emphasized statements by Chinese officials because he believed Ameri-
can readers would not be interested in their views. Accordingly, this
factor is called the Ethnocentric/ Dissident Discourse. The following
will discuss the various issues distinguishing the three factors, such
as human rights issues, the slant on economic development, and authority
figures.
Human Rights
Factor 1, the Chinese Discourse, differs significantly with Factor
2, the American Discourse, in relation to human rights issues. Chinese
students de-emphasized the human rights statements and emphasized the
statements dealing with the positive aspects of economic growth. The
American discourse, on the other hand, viewed human rights issues as es-
sential to the story about U.S.-China economic relations. These differ-
ences coincide with Lange's (1984) hypothesis:
People who see themselves in a state of relative deprivation
will be more concerned with a future that promises to reduce
that deprivation, and with cooperation with others to attempt
to achieve that goal. On the other hand, people who see them-
selves as affluent--in a state of relative advantage and
satisfaction--will be more oriented towards the present and
towards conflicts which threaten that present.
Indeed, the most significant differences between the Chinese and
American discourses were those statements concerning human rights is-
sues. The following was placed at the bottom of the news story by the
Chinese Discourse, while the American Discourse places it at +1:
The U.S. State Department's survey of global human rights is-
sued yesterday concludes that China has made no progress in
any major human rights area since 1994.
Although the American Discourse did not place this statement high, other
statements concerning human rights were placed consistently higher for
the American Discourse than the Chinese Discourse. Two other examples
include the following:
Four leading Chinese dissidents who fled China after the
brutal crackdown at Tianenmen Square said the future of democ-
racy in China depends on Western nations influencing reform
through economic sanctions.
Amnesty International, in a released report, called on China
to cease what it said were "horrific violations of human
rights" in Tibet, which has been occupied by the Chinese since
the early 1950s. The report details dozens of alleged cases
of arbitrary arrest, torture and death and calls for economic
sanctions against China.
Respondents falling into the Chinese Discourse, who were primarily
Chinese students albeit a couple American students also fell into this
discourse, said the Chinese dissidents did not have much credibility and
thus their views were considered unimportant and least credible. Also
interesting was the consistent explanation by Chinese students that
Tibet was part of their country, contrary to what others said and thus
this issue was not important.
These differences also can be traced to the cultural differences.
The Chinese approach to community is in direct contrast with Western en-
lightenment, which concentrates on individual rights. As Hsu (1961)
writes:
Individualism is that conception of each human being as unique
and as possessing God-given rights which cannot be taken away
from him by men, society, or tradition. To express this
uniqueness he must have freedom and, to safeguard his right,
his due is equality.
Thus, divergence in news selection arose from the nature of the culture
itself. The individualist orientation is most characteristic of Western
culture and manifested itself in the American discourse. Peterson
(1976) suggests:
This value orientation may affect news selection . . . for
news events in which individual human beings (rather than so-
cial forces) are clearly the focus of the story.
Thus, individuals who are members of a more conflict-oriented culture
are likely to regard conflictual events as more newsworthy since con-
flict figures more prominently in their world view (Peterson, 1976). On
the other hand, this angle was missing from the Chinese discourse as it
de-emphasizes negative news, detrimental to the good of the whole soci-
ety even if this means explicitly neglecting individual rights.
The American Discourse, appears to be one based upon the luxury in-
dividuals in developed countries have to criticize others. As Lange
says, developing countries are in more desperate conditions and must di-
rect their energies toward economic development rather than political
rights. The combination of this with Chinese cultural attributes mani-
fested themselves clearly in this study.
The Economy
As mentioned, the Chinese Discourse emphasizes the positive aspects
of economic development, characterized by an optimistic view of the fu-
ture and the way each government was leading their countries. The Amer-
ican Discourse, although playing up human rights violations,
interestingly downplayed the statements that mentioned class and capi-
tal. Goldman and Rajagopal (1990) say this is common in U.S. news media
and Gans (1980) says that "responsible capitalism" is one of America's
underlying social values that manifest themselves in their unspoken and
taken-for-granted nature. The following two statements were placed
lower in the American discourse than the Chinese discourse:
Millions of Chinese workers are facing layoffs, wage cuts and
an end to bonuses as factories across China shut down as a re-
sult of the ongoing global shift toward open markets and full-
fledge capitalist trade relations.
The increased foreign investment in China has led corporations
to exploit the vulnerable working class. One laborer said,
"The factory boss promised us high wages, but gave us only
half of that on payday. Though we were supposed to work eight
hours a day, actually we had to work much longer."
These two statements are interesting because while they underscore human
rights abuses, these abuses are caused by the underlying economic system
and broad economic changes rather than the Chinese government. Many
years under communist rule has allowed issues such as exploitation,
working class and capitalism to become part of the Chinese students'
discourse, while American students are somewhat resistant to this part
of the human rights discourse and are more in tune with issues of human
rights committed by governments rather than corporations.
Government/Authority
All the factors emphasized statements by government officials,
while the Ethnocentric/ Dissident discourse emphasized only the govern-
ment officials from one country. The Chinese Discourse also played up
the governmental perspective, while the American Discourse did not find
them to be as important as other statements. Examples of these include
the following:
Premeir Li Peng yesterday categorically declared that China
will continue to adhere to Deng Xiaoping's theory of building
socialism with Chinese characteristics, noting China will con-
tinue "deepening reform, opening the economy, promoting devel-
opment and maintaining stability."
Bill Clinton said that the United States will continue giving
Most-favored nation status to China because the country is po-
tentially the largest economy in the world and the United
States should not be left out.
The Ethnocentric/ Dissident Discourse was bi-polar to the Chinese
Discourse, and as already mentioned, there were two explanations for
this discourse. One reflected an anti-government perspective that sim-
ply wanted to emphasize everything that was going wrong with China and
de-emphasize anything the Chinese government wished to say. The other
category reflected the Western perspective of focusing on human rights
issues, which are negative from the China government's perspective, but
also the statements by Chinese officials were deemed unimportant for the
American audience.
The Chinese Discourse, interestingly, played down the issue of
ballistic missiles, while the other two factors played it up. For exam-
ple:
The Chinese government labeled as "unjustifiable" the Clinton
administration's decision to impose economic sanctions over
China's sale of ballistic missile technology to Pakistan.
The placement of this statement may illustrate the centrality of the
military weaponry issue to Americans, while to the Chinese it is not
part of the story.
A couple other interesting differences between the discourses is
the placement of the statement about Michael Jackson, which is placed at
the bottom of the story in the American Discourse, while it is placed in
the middle of the story by the Chinese Discourse. From interviews given
after Q sorts had been completed, there seemed to be an assumption by
Chinese students that a Michael Jackson concert was something that Amer-
ican readers would be interested to know about. This explanation is in-
teresting because it may be assumed that other statements were placed in
their positions for the same reasons, meaning that the Chinese students
did not only believe that human rights issues were unimportant to
U.S.-China economic relations or the development process, but that Amer-
ican readers would not care to read about this as well. The different
perspectives certainly lie in a larger worldview that has different pri-
orities and expectations.
Consensus Statements
Due to the bi-polar nature of the Chinese and Ethnocentric/ Dissi-
dent discourses, there were no significant consensus statements, in
which all factors agreed on the importance of single statements. How-
ever, there were some themes that brought together the discourses. Each
discourse, for example, found that news affecting many people required
more attention than those affecting a few or a statement that was per-
sonalized to reflect the experiences of a single individual. Peterson
(1981) calls this "news factor," which determines the importance of a
news item, "Threshold." She writes that this "refers to the scope of an
event--the greater its "amplitude," the more likely it is to be re-
ported" (p. 145). This news factor creates discursive openings for all
the factors because it forces each discourse to compromise its points of
view. It requires the Chinese Discourse, for example, to emphasize the
far-reaching and negative effects of the industrialization process,
while the American Discourse emphasizes the larger community, not simply
the interests of the individual.
Each discourse also underwrites the importance of the capitalist
system and the actors that head it, albeit each stressed different
statements. For example, the Chinese and American discourses stress the
following statement:
The heads of 800 corporations are pressing President Clinton
not to punish China with trade sanctions for its continuing
human rights abuses. The U.S. executives argue that the free
market is the most subversive force to challenge China's Com-
munist Party.
Although the Ethnocentric/ Dissident Discourse did not specifically
highlight this statement, indeed it placed it low in the story, this
discourse did emphasize the views of U.S. officials and thus the govern-
ment's pursuit of open markets. The common theme of capitalism is an
accepted value of our culture (Gans, 1980). The fact that China is also
going through stages of economic development based upon open markets
lends credence to Marx's argument that capitalism will continue expand-
ing until it shapes all human interaction. The system, as Gramsci
wrote, is accepted as a taken-for-granted reality that is unquestioned
and accepted to the point of perpetuating the status quo, and thus the
consensus around which each discourse revolves seems to support
Gramsci's conclusions. Thus, rather than point out this single dis-
course, this study emphasizes the texture of three discourses that exist
and compete within this deeper, underlying hegemony, refining the debate
and leading future research in more appropriate directions.
Each factor also emphasized U.S. government officials in the story,
which is such a taken-for-granted perspective that its implications can-
not even subvert it, meaning that a de-emphasis of these statements
would probably not make much sense in the context of this story. But,
the common sense acceptance of this perspective does reflect the estab-
lished official viewpoint on U.S.-China relations and does make the me-
dia a mouthpiece for the government's agenda. This gives legitimacy not
only to democratically-elected officials, but to dictators in countries
like China. The lack of democratic institutions in China leaves estab-
lished officials who base their power on a system of political intrigue
rather than democratic choices, with legitimate roles in the interna-
tional system.
Conclusion
This study's results highlight the imbedded discursive patterns
that characterize individuals from China and the United States. These
differences can be linked to the distinctive ways that individuals from
industrializing and industrialized countries view development issues.
Understanding the distinctions between them opens up the possibility for
further convergence and cooperation between cultures, rather than con-
tinued confrontation based upon uninformed opinions. Rather than view-
ing news judgments made in China as simply tied to the dictate's of an
oppressive regime, levels of economic development and cultural differ-
ences also underlie differences. The Western media should be more at-
tentive to the struggles developing countries are facing, such as the
complex links between economic and political variables. They should be-
gin placing the process into context more often, consistently reminding
readers of the historical economic processes and relations that have ex-
isted and continue to exist, which explain how and why uneven develop-
ment is symptomatic of the differences between developed and developing
countries and the ongoing process of global industrialization.
With regards to the methodology utilized in this study, Q offers an
objective way to tap into the competing nature of discourses and it un-
covers the ones utilized by individuals from different cultures. Con-
tent analyses have been unable to examine how individuals from different
cultures would write the same story utilizing the same words, and this
study accomplishes that objective. Also, rather than predetermining the
way individual discourses would cluster, revealing the patterned ways of
viewing the news, factor analysis illuminates the patterns inherent in
data provided directly from individuals. The results also can be easily
replicated and generalized to a larger audience because the focus is on
discourses rather than averages (Dryzek, 1994). Although further analy-
sis should be done to replicate these findings and to study these issues
more intensively, the importance of Q methodology to the media hegemony
debate has been illustrated and its results should stimulate further in-
terest in probing the interrelationship between the press and social
change in China. Finally, its main finding is that cultural differences
affect news selection and this awareness reinforces an important element
often neglected in the media hegemony debate.
APPENDIX
Q Sample Structure, Statements, and Factor Scores
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominant/Personalized...
4 3 -4 (24) Bill Clinton said that the United States will continue its
Most-favored nation status with China because the country is
potentially the largest economy in the world and the United
States should not be left out.
3 0 -3 (29) Premier Li Peng yesterday categorically declared that
China will continue to adhere to Deng Xiaoping's theory of
building socialism with Chinese characteristics, noting China
will continue "deepening reform, opening the economy, promoting
development and maintaining stability."
4 3 -4 (26) Ending months of recrimination, China and the United
States agreed yesterday to press jointly for Beijing's entry
into the new World Trade Organization on a "flexible, pragmatic
and realistic basis." The accords put an end to the atmosphere
of enmity that has characterized Chinese-American trade negoti-
ations.
-1 1 1 (5) China's President Jiang Zemin, who is the likely successor
of Deng Xiaoping, told his country yesterday that socialism
would replace capitalism in a future order. But for now, he
said, it is best to "borrow" advanced technology from the de-
veloped capitalist nations.
-2 -4 2 (4) Li Zhizhong, a farmer in the Chinese province of Guangdong,
has been successful at managing his 16 acres of farmland. His
success reflects the opportunities created by the economic re-
forms Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping began 12 years ago.
Dominant/Institutional...
2 -1 2 (18) China's economic reforms of the past 12 years and the rel-
atively light regulation of the country's rural areas have re-
sulted in the emergence of a large number of successful
entrepreneurs as individuals, villages, and towns establish
small industries and businesses in order to sell products at a
profit.
3 4 3 (2) The heads of 800 corporations are pressing President
Clinton not to punish China with trade sanctions for its con-
tinuing human rights abuses. The U.S. executives argue that
the free market is the most subversive force to challenge
China's Communist Party.
1 3 -1 (22) China, facing the threat of a potentially crippling trade
war with the United States over copyright piracy and intellec-
tual properties, called on its citizens to boycott pirated pro-
ducts.
0 -3 0 (11) For Coca-Cola and other foreign companies doing business
in China, finding good workers is difficult. The "iron rice
bowl" mentality pervades in a country where people were guaran-
teed a job for life, whether they did it well or not.
0 1 0 (9) The U.S. Commerce Department reported yesterday that the
American trade deficit with China is not much of a threat to
the United States because Chinese imports pouring into the U.S.
market are not costing a lot of American jobs; they are mostly
displacing jobs in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Negotiated/Personalized...
0 -1 0 (19) "China's air pollution in general is serious and is wors-
ening with the country's rapid economic development," said Song
Jian, a Chinese environmental commissioner. "The amount of
sulphur dioxide discharge is rising annually, causing a wide
precipitation of acid rain."
-2 0 2 (6) Some groups in the United States at a rally in Washington,
D.C., said yesterday that because Taiwan has made strides in
economic development and liberalization, the United States
should support Taiwan's application to join the World Trade Or-
ganization and should help guard it from bullying from mainland
China.
-3 -2 3 (17) "Tibet is an inseparable part of China," said Ming Radi,
chair of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan People's Con-
gress. "The Dali Lama's push for independence is part of a
Western attempt to split China."
-3 2 3 (27) Four leading Chinese dissidents who fled China after the
brutal crackdown at Tianenmen Square said the future of democ-
racy in China depends on Western nations influencing reform
through economic sanctions.
0 -4 0 (15) Rock singer Michael Jackson announced yesterday that he
will be hosting a benefit concert in China in upcoming months.
Negotiated/Institutional...
3 3 3 (1) The U.S. China trade war over copyright piracy is not only
a vital foreign policy issue but a vital security threat, en-
dangering billions of dollars of U.S. investments and tens of
thousands of U.S. jobs.
2 2 -2 (23) The promised comprehensive efforts of the Chinese govern-
ment to end widespread piracy of U.S. computer software, movies
and trademarks was only a partial victory for the United States
because China may not be able to totally control their markets.
-4 1 4 (25) The State Department's report on human rights in China,
part of its global human rights survey issued yesterday, con-
cludes that China has made no progress in any major human
rights area since 1994.
-2 4 2 (8) The Chinese government labeled as "unjustifiable" the
Clinton administration's decision to impose economic sanctions
over China's sale of ballistic missile technology to Pakistan.
-4 2 4 (20) Amnesty International, in a released report, called on
China to cease what it said were "horrific violations of human
rights" in Tibet, which has been occupied by the Chinese since
the early 1950s. The report details dozens of alleged cases of
arbitrary arrest, torture and death and calls for economic
sanctions against China.
Oppositional/Personalized...
1 -1 -1 (30) Uncertainty about political stability after the death of
Deng Xiaping and a legal system that does little to protect the
rights of private companies along with the looming U.S.-Sino
trade war is a blow to business confidence in China, says U.S.
economic analysts.
0 1 0 (21) "I am frightened by U.S. corporations," says Yanbin Ming,
"I lost my job last week because IBM came to town and set up
shop here, destroying our small country's ability to compete."
-2 -4 2 (3) With his possessions bundled in plastic, 30-year-old Ren
Jun arrived recently in Beijing hoping to land a job in the lo-
cal coal mines. He made his way to the labor market, becoming
one face in a sea of laborers for hire.
0 -2 0 (13) The increased foreign investment in China has led to cor-
porations to exploit the vulnerable working class. One laborer
said, "The factory boss promised us high wages, but gave us
only half of that on payday. Though we were supposed to work
eight hours a day, actually we had to work much longer."
-1 0 1 (14) "There is a large pool of marginal people subject to the
insecurity of having no rice bowl they can count on," said
Richard Baum, a political scientist at Harvard University.
"They are dying in grotesque industrial accidents, they are
locked in the dormitories at night, and they create a pocket of
human misery wherever they cluster."
Oppositional/Institutional...
1 -2 -1 (7) Millions of Chinese workers are facing layoffs, wage cuts
and an end to bonuses as factories across China shut down as a
result of the move toward open markets and full-fledged capi-
talist trade relations.
-1 0 1 (10) Under Deng Xiaoping's liberal economic reforms, the rich
have become richer and the poor have become poor," a villager
said who asked not to be identified. "No one knows what will
happen after he dies."
0 0 0 (16) Millions of rural workers are flooding into China's
cities, where they are becoming an unstable and exploited force
rampant on the fringes of the country's overcrowded and pol-
luted centers, where crime, corruption and unemployment are
threatening stability.
2 0 -2 (12) Tens of millions of workers in China stand to be affected
as the country's ailing state enterprises seek to raise effi-
ciency by reassigning jobs. The changes will require state en-
terprises to redefine their ownership structures, says Fan Gang
of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
-1 -1 1 (28) Speaking of the 50 million migrant workers who are consid-
ered the engine of China, a longtime Western diplomat said,
"This is the labor of an exploited lower class. There are no
wage laws to protect them, and they can be fired on a whim."
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