A topic modeling-assisted diachronic study of “One Country, Two Systems” represented in Anglo-American newspapers

Abstract

One Country, Two Systems (1C2S) is a framework proposed by China to achieve national unification of territories with different economic and socio-political systems. This study explores the discursive construction of 1C2S in two representative Anglo-American newspapers from January 1984 through March 2020 by taking a topic modeling-assisted critical discourse studies approach. The findings suggest that the foci of coverage change throughout the years, and the reports present an increasingly negative portrayal of 1C2S and growing distrust in its future through the use of a variety of discursive strategies such as predication, intensification, and normalization. In addition to practical concerns of the U.S. and the U.K., these findings are interpreted with regard to the underlying ideological conflicts between socialist China and the two capitalist Western countries. This study also shows the advantage of integrating the topic-modelling approach into discourse studies, especially in terms of diachronic analysis.