U.S. Media Coverage of People's Republic of China

This research will examine United States media coverage of the People's Republic of China for the month of April 1999. The research will set forth the context in which media coverage of China has become relevant to an understanding of how American press organizations function and then discuss the amount, placement, point of view, level and kind of bias, and general themes that can be discerned in the coverage given China by newspapers of record.

The visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to the United States in April 1999 provides a contextual hub for examination of China coverage by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Zhu visited the White House and President Clinton on April 8, and in the weeks both before and after the visit both newspapers dealt with U.S.-China relations from a variety of perspectives. The first thing to notice is that visit, though the first of its kind since 1984, was not the sole focus of coverage ("U.S. Wants"). In the background of the visit were issues of differences on trade, diplomacy, politics, and even accusations of espionage. Some of the coverage appears to have achieved a high profile on account of Zhu's visit, even though the visit was not the focus of coverage: During that time, allegations of Chinese espionage against the U.S. were made that, by the end of April, resulted in the arrest, at the end of April, of a Chinese American scientist employed at the nuclear weapons research laboratory at Los Alamos, N.M. (Drogin A1).

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beside Newton and Liu's report (B8) that Zhu "managed a smile and a laugh" when asked about allegations of Chinese spying at Los Alamos and that trade negotiators were elsewhere ironing out their differences. A careful review of the coverage of Zhu's visit to the U.S. suggests that the principal reason he made the trip was economic in general and trade-related in particular. The fact that the U.S. and China failed to announce an agreement that would facilitate China's entry into the World Trade Organization, together with the fact that the week after Zhu's visit American negotiators had left for Beijing to attempt to work out an agreement to open China's markets, is an index of this (Mitchell and Broder). The further negotiations were a consequence of complaints by the business community, which desires to do business with China, potentially a major world markets. The story's focus is on opposition to formalizing any agreement with china because of a "bipartisan coalition of Democrats who are concerned about human rights and protection for American manufacturers and Republicans who are interested in punishing China for allegations of espionage and theft of United States weapons technology" (Mitchell and Broder). While the story men

Category: History - U