论文总字数：58349字

摘 要

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Need of the study 2

1.3 Research purposes 3

2. Literature Review 4

2.1 Definitions of key concepts 4

2.2 Theoretical framework 5

2.3 Related empirical studies 6

2.3.1 Researches on discourse of Foreign Ministry spokesmen.......................6

2.3.2 Researches on China-U.S. trade war.......................................................6

2.3.3 Researches on discourse analyses from the persepctive of Appraisal Theory..................................................................................................7

2.4 Research gap....................................................................................................8

3. Research Methodology...........................................................................................10

3.1 Research questions 10

3.2 Corpus for the study 10

3.3 Research methods 11

4. Results and Discussion 12

4.1 Judgments of spokesmen 12

4.1.1 Judgments of legitimate interests and rights.........................................12

4.1.2 Judgments of the nature of actions of China.........................................13

4.1.3 Judgments of the nature of actions of the U.S.......................................13

4.2 Appreciation of spokesmen 15

4.2.1 Appreciation of value of China-U.S cooperation..................................15

4.2.2 Appreciation of consequences of actions of the U.S.............................16

4.2.3 Appreciation of China's reactions.........................................................17

4.3 The expression of affect of spokesmen............................................................18

4.3.1 The expression of affect to the U.S. actions..........................................18

4.3.2 The expression of affect to the attitude and ways of the U.S. to handle disputes...............................................................................................19

4.3.3 The expression of affect to the U.S. speechs.........................................20

4.3.4 The expression of affect to the attitude and ways of China to handle disputes...............................................................................................21

5. Conclusion 23

5.1 Major findings 23

5.2 Limitations in the research and Advice for further researchers 23

References 25

Acknowledgments

Personally, I really want to express my sincere gratitude to those who have helped and supported me when I was writing this thesis from my heart.

First and foremost, I would love to give my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Sun Li, who has not only offered me many academic materials relevant to the study, but also provided constant guidance to make the present research possible. Her professional knowledge, rigorous academic attitude, excelsior work style, strict self-discipline and easy-going personality charm have far-reaching impact on me. She always enlightens me when I meet with confusions and gives me orientations. I have every cause to believe that this paper will not have been the present form without her professional instruction and illumination.

Next, my gratitude should be given to the professors in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature in Nanjing Tech University. They have shared their academic knowledge, broad horizon and profound thinking with me in the past three years, which creates a great academic atmosphere for me, so that my paper could be more rigorous.

Moreover, I feel like giving my appreciation to my best friends accompanying me when I was confronted with barriers in both thesis and life. I enjoy communicating with them and without their help, I could not successfully addressed all kinds of difficulties.

Last but not least, I would like to express my profound love to my family, whose unwavering care, considerable understanding and strong support in life contributed a lot to the successful accomplishment of the present paper.

Abstract

Appraisal Theory has aroused widespread heed in the domain of linguistics researches in the recent years, especially in relevant analyses of discourse. Meanwhile, the implications of the China-U.S. trade war keeps deepening, which have also provoked quite a few concerns. In spite of dozens of researches on Appraisal Theory and applications of Appraisal Theory in a variety of discourse analyses, for instance, the study of discourse of spokesmen, there rarely exist researches that analyze discourse of spokesmen on China-U.S. trade war from the perspective of Appraisal Theory.

The current research, which is Appraisal Theory-based, utilizes Qualitative Analysis Method to explore the way spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China use resources of attitude to respond to the journalists’ queries associated with trade disputes between China and the U.S. from March 2018 to February 2019.

Major findings of the study are listed as follows: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen’s attitude comprises the judgment of legitimate rights and interests and the nature of behaviors of China and the U.S. and the issue itself, the appreciation of the value of the issue, consequences of the U.S. actions and China’s reaction to behaviors of United States, and the affect expressed to the infringement act of United States, speeches from the U.S. and the attitude and ways utilized by China and the U.S. to tackle the trade dispute. All findings of the present study demonstrate that language is quite crucial to the defense of lawful rights and interests of our nation to some extent.

Theoretically, the present study is aimed to investigate from the perspective of Appraisal Theory how the diplomatic discourses on the China-U.S. trade war published by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen are effective to defend China’s legitimate rights and interests of economy and trade and find out the relevancy between the both. Practically, the better comprehension of the relationship between discourse of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the maintenance of lawful rights and interests obtained from the current study is quite of importance and meaning to inspire and guide the appropriate application in other events and fields. In other words, if Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen’s rightful choices of the diplomatic discourses facilitate China’s defense of legal rights and interests of international trade the principle and essence behind it may contain prime guidance and enlightening significance.

Keywords: diplomatic discourse; the China-U.S. trade war; spokesmen; the Appraisal Theory

中文摘要

近年来，评价理论在语言学研究领域特别是话语分析方面得到了广泛关注。与此同时，中美贸易战的持续发酵也引起不少注意。虽然已有大量有关评价理论的研究及其在各类话语分析中的应用，譬如外交部发言人话语分析研究，并且也有不少对于中美贸易战有关问题的研究，但是鲜有从评价理论视角来对外交部发言人就中美贸易战所发话语进行的研究。

基于评价理论的本研究通过运用定性分析法来探索中国外交部发言人如何使用不同态度资源就记者有关从2018年3月份到2019年2月份的中美贸易战所提问题进行回答。本研究取得的主要发现为中国外交部发言人运用的态度资源包括就中美双方行为的性质和事件本身性质以及中美双方合法权益的评判，对事件价值、美方行为后果及反应的鉴别以及美方侵权行为、美方言论和中美两方处理贸易争端的态度与方式的情感表达。所有这些发现充分表明了语言一定程度上对国家合法权益的维护来讲至关重要。

本研究的理论意义在于从评价理论视角出发考察中国外交部发言人就中美贸易战所发话语对捍卫中国合法经贸权益的有效性及两者之间的相关性。实践应用意义在于本研究所取得的有关外交部发言人话语与合法权益维护之间关系的深入理解对在其他事件及领域之中合理运用具有极为重要的指导与教育意义。换言之，即假设中国外交部发言人通过正确使用外交话语能够促就中国经贸权益的正当维护，则其中的原理及精髓具有一定的启示与指导价值。

关键词：外交话语；中美贸易战；新闻发言人；评价理论

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Nowadays, world multi-polarization and economic globalization are making headway amid twists and turns, which makes the competition of synthetic national power become much fiercer. There is no disclaim that national trade competitions cannot avoid conflicts and frictions, especially between two economic magnates: China and United States, which even has turned into a trade war. American government keeps taking harsher trade actions with the hostile purpose of exerting pressures on the economic development of China. For the sake of defending China’s economic rights and interests which are very lawful, not only should the Ministry of Commerce formulate effective fiscal and economic strategies but also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ought to take appropriate measures via diplomacy to uphold the very justice and defend the intrinsic rights and interests of our country in terms of economy. Besides, language as well as discourses especially Foreign Ministry spokesmen’s diplomatic discourses which are vital resources have become more closely concerned with national economic development and safety. Therefore, there is an inevitable necessity to have an integrated analysis to investigate positive effects of diplomatic discourses of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on China-U.S. trade war.

Quite a few of heeds have been paid to the discussion and studies of Appraisal Theory since the very beginning of the twenty-first century. In the recent years, the discussion and studies related to Appraisal Theory have become more prevalent and much attention have been attached to the Appraisal Theory-based analyses of discourse. The initial application of Appraisal Theory in the analysis was about the discourses in newspapers but nowadays the boundary of which has already covered almost everything in the world. Diplomacy is no exception.

A mass of analyses of discourses related to diplomacy and from many spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in different countries and nations have been carried out. These analyses are conducive to helping us to capture the evident and implied emotions, meanings, judgments and appreciations in diplomatic discourses more precisely and efficiently. And up to the higher level, this also assists researchers to find out the relevancy between discourses utilized by spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one or more particular events.

Among these previous Appraisal Theory-based analyses comprised the relationship between attitude of discourses and the construction of national identity, sovereignty, rights, interests and so on. Given the originality and prominence, this present study is intended to make an integrated analysis of diplomatic discourses from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen on China-U.S. trade war which is from the perspective of Appraisal Theory. Appraisal Theory contributes comprehensively to the exploration of the relevancy between diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and the maintenance of legitimate interests and rights of economy.

1.2 Need of the study

Doubtless, several related studies concerning China-U.S. Trade War have existed already, nevertheless, there are few studies on China-U.S. trade disputes from the perspective of Appraisal Theory up to now. The application of Appraisal Theory in various discourse analyses shows that it is a theoretical framework of Systematic Functional Linguistics with full of tension. Obviously, Appraisal Theory can reveal the very meanings and functions of discourse more systematically and profoundly compared to other theories, which helps researchers obtain a better comprehension of standpoints, opinions and of course attitude within discourse to an extent. Therefore, the present thesis which applies Appraisal Theory as its theoretical framework bears benefits both practically and academically. On the one hand, if the utilization of diplomatic discourses has a positive impact on the convey of reasonable justice, it will be helpful to support the defense of China’s economic rights and interests, which has practical significance for the economy and economic sovereignty of our country. Hence, it is necessary to demonstrate how the usage of diplomatic discourses is related to the protection. On the other hand, the analysis of relationship between diplomatic discourses from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and the just defense of legitimate economic rights and interests of our country will in turn strengthen people’s capacity of critical thinking of worldwide affairs and affiliated consequences. Last but not least, recognizing how these fine-picked diplomatic discourses perform functions precisely will be of benefit to enlarge the scope of Appraisal Theory’s application. These analyses can provide more accurate appreciation of specific utterances which is of great importance for further research.

1.3 Research purposes

From the perspective of Appraisal Theory, the target in the current research is exploring the reason why the diplomatic discourses used by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen are effective to defend China’s legitimate rights and interests of economy. Namely, unlocking the relevancy between both things is a key point of this research.

Additionally, this study is devoted to obtain a better comprehension of diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and their relationships to rightful safeguard of national rights and interests in terms of economy, which is quite of importance and meaning to inspire and guide the appropriate application in other events and fields. In other words, if the defense of economic rights and interests of China can be facilitated by the rightful choices of diplomatic discourses, the essence and principle behind it may contain guidance and enlightening significance.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definitions of key concepts

The obligation of Foreign Ministry spokesmen is to release diplomatic information or elaborate the official views and positions of the Foreign Ministry on international events or current situation issues, and respond to the questions of domestic and foreign journalists within a reasonable and appropriate range. As spokesmen of the core department of the government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen represent China's official attitude in the process of the transmission of political information. In the present study, the discourse of the Foreign Ministry spokesmen are the collected diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen on China-U.S. trade war which are official speeches authorized by Chinese Foreign Ministry on behalf of Chinese Foreign Ministry and responses to questions raised by journalists associated with China-U.S. trade war at the regular press conferences of Chinese Foreign Ministry from March of 2018 to February of 2019.

China-U.S. trade war which is also referred to as the China-U.S. trade dispute is an issue of prime importance in China-U.S. economic relations. Trade disputes between China and the U.S. mainly occur in the following dimensions: the first is China have strengths to some extent in the field of export, and the second is China's lack of advantage in the field of import and technical knowledge. The profound influences of them on the both two countries’ welfare and further developments in the long term are different. To be more specific, China-U.S. trade war in the current research is that the U.S. neglected multilateral trade rules publishing so-called speeches to distort the very fact and took trade harsh and hostile restrictions on China such as unreasonable high tariffs on Chinese imports unilaterally for times in disregard of the call for ration from various nations to undermine China’s lawful rights and interests on purpose, which involved a span of almost one year from March 2018 to February 2019. And subsequently, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen responded to unjustified speeches of the U.S. concerning China-U.S. trade disputes respectively and in accordance to all restrictive measures on China by the U.S., Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson repeatedly clarified China’s consistent standpoint that China firmly oppose the U.S. acts of unilateralism and trade protectionism and will never sit idly letting its lawful rights and interests be undermined and will surely take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard China’s legitimate rights and interests. In the course of fiercer encounters of China and the U.S. spokesmen of Chinese Foreign Ministry throughout advocated and urged related departments of the U.S. government to listen to its business community and ordinary people and renounce its unilateralism and trade protectionism sooner rather than later and settle the trade disputes between China and the U.S. via bilateral communication and negotiation.

2.2 Theoretical framework

The present study adopt Appraisal Theory as the theoretical framework to conduct an analysis of diplomatic discourse of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen on China-U.S. trade war. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few varieties of angles to define Appraisal Theory. In accordance to the very initial definition, Appraisal Theory is appraisal-related which is diverse attitudes in negotiated discourses, the intensity of involved emotions and a variety of methods to demonstrate values and connected to readers(Martin amp; Rose, 2003 amp; 2007). And then Li (2004) identifies Appraisal Theory from a macroscopic view, as a lately developed lexico-grammatical framework for studying interpersonal meanings in functional meaning, which is concerned with a variety of attitudes negotiable in a text. All in all, the Appraisal System is an emerging development anchored in Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which is a interpretive research(Wang, 2001). Not only does the Appraisal System exist in the language as one system, but also it contains an interior operating mechanism which is quite specific(Liu, 2012). Appraisal System comprises three sub-systems. The current study mainly investigates the system of Attitude. The Attitude System is further sub-systematized into Affect, Judgment and Appreciation. The system of Affect is the center of the whole Attitude System, from which the system of Judgment and the system of Appreciation are derived(Wang, 2001).

2.3 Related empirical studies

2.3.1 Researches on discourse of Foreign Ministry spokesmen

As one kind of international discourse of politics, not only does diplomatic discourse from spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publish and disseminate official information to the media, but also responds to the relevant questions raised by the media and clarifies the standpoint, which plays a prime important role in the international activities of politics. Therefore, many researches have already conducted a tremendous amount of studies to make in-depth and detailed analyses of the discourse of Foreign Ministry spokesmen. Wu (2011) carried out a study researching the effect of agenda-setting in Chinese Foreign Ministry via comparing the discourse of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and the relevant discourse quoted by the Western media, which came to a conclusion that in order to enhance the communication effect of the discourse of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen, we should not only pay heed to “what to say” in the contents of the discourse, but also ought to attach more importance to “how to say” in the attitude of the discourse. Besides, Liu, Shi amp; Deng (2019) accomplished a study exploring the difference and similarities of China-U.S. political speech acts of advertising in terms of the illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs) and strategies, found that the IFIDs of Chinese and American political advice are similar, while strategies of which are quite different in aspects of directness and politeness.

2.3.2 Researches on China-U.S. trade war

China-U.S. trade war has been a heated focus of debate for quite a long time. Despite the very truth that China-U.S. bilateral trades rapidly developed, there also do exist consistent trade frictions. It is well known that China and United States are considered as the two leaders in some specific domains in the world and both have profound influences on nearly all fields, especially in the domain of bilateral trade. Doubtless, in the course of the amplification of its economic scale and rapid developments, it is really hard to dodge the continual friction which is commonly referred to as the trade war metaphorically. All of these generated researchers’ great to delve deeper into the China-U.S. trade war. There are quite a few of reasons may be able to account for the so-called trade war. For instance, the issue in correspondence with the exchange rate of RMB, the suppression to China caused by the American dominance of trade rules, China’s high dependence on the trade with the U.S. as well as relatively single trade commodities of China and the absence of American recognition to the China’s status in global market economy(Zhang, 2018). In addition, China-U.S. trade imbalance has led to the amplification of trade deficits of China and China’s rise is considered as a potential threat to the own rights and interests of the U.S. which in turn to drive United States to take unjust and extreme measures to fight against China in quite hostile way(Wang, 2019).

2.3.3 Researches on discourse analyses from the perspective of Appraisal Theory

As the Appraisal Theory developed, the applications of it also gradually came to existence. Sun amp; Chen (2014) have already in the earlier times utilized Qualitative Analysis Method (QAM) investigating the myth of the usage of attitude resources in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s diplomatic discourses on the Philippines in the South China Sea dispute and the conclusion was eventually made that proper resources of attitude utilized by spokesmen did contribute to maintaining the national sovereignty. Hsu amp; Huang (2017) utilized Appraisal Theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), carrying out a positive discourse analysis on Fu Ying's diplomatic discourse. Subsequently, they described the linguistic characteristics of Fu Ying's discourse and further explored how Fu Ying uses language resources to actively introduce China to the world and build a comprehensive image of China. With regard to positive and critical discourse analyses, Martin (2004) published a milestone-like thesis which firstly introduced positive discourse analysis (PDA). He believed that the inclusion of positive discourse analysis is inevitable to the fulfillment of the pursuit of discourse analysis which is promoting the change of the society. Hsu (2012) made a comparison between positive and the other type of discourse analysis where the framework of Systematic Functional Linguistic (SFL) was applied and subsequently came to a conclusion that positive discourse analysis is a supplement to the critical one, in which case, Appraisal Theory is enabled to collaborate with the discourse analysis comprehensively. Gallardo and Ferrari (2010) studied the relationship between professional practice and the health of doctors as far as doctors are concerned via a qualitative analysis of medical discourse from the perspective of Appraisal Theory. This study found that in the examination of judgment, appreciation and affect, the attitude of doctors as research objects were quite negative and there barely exist the expression of satisfaction and pleasure to their profession. Song amp; Zhou (2017) conducted an attitudinal analysis of public speeches of WB and AIIB from the perspective of Appraisal Theory, which found that there exist great differences in proportion of the usage of judgment, appreciation and affect of attitude resources between the AIIB and the WB. Yang (2014) discovered that Chinese athletes utilized the judgment of attitude resources most, while American athletes used the affect of attitude resources most in their acceptance speeches by an comparative analysis from the perspective of attitude resources.

2.4 Research gap

Upon examining previous researches, there is no disclaim that there do exist numerous researches on Appraisal Theory ranging from the construction of its essential framework to the demonstration of its prime importance in pragmatics and the relevant application of Appraisal Theory in discourse analyses. Additionally, with the sustained fermentation of China-U.S. trade disputes and delicate changes of the China-U.S. relation in terms of economy, a variety of researches have already been carried out to delve deeper into related issues of China-U.S. trade war, such as its causes and implications, which mainly focus on the economic dimension. However, few researchers utilize diplomatic discourses of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China to investigate the China-U.S. trade war in-depth. Especially studies that Appraisal Theory is adopted as the theoretical framework in the corpus research of diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen on China-U.S. trade war and responses of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China to related questions raised by the journalists are much rarer.

By means of conducting a comprehensive analysis of discourse of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on China-U.S. trade war using qualitative analysis method to grasp a more profound understanding of the reasons of attitude resources utilized in diplomatic discourse of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and better explore the relevancy between diplomatic discourses and the maintenance of legitimate rights and interests of China, the present study is expected to bridge the research gap mentioned above to some extent. Namely, the current study analyzes the way spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China appropriately use attitude resources of diplomatic discourses to defend China’s lawful rights and interests from the perspective of Appraisal Theory.

3. Research Methodology

The present thesis carries out the analysis on the characteristics and specific reasons of attitudes of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen in the diplomatic responses they have made to journalists’ questions on China-U.S. trade war and factors of the context related to which. And then make a through inquiry into how diplomatic discourses from Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesmen perform functions to some extent when it comes to defending China’s legitimate economic rights and interests in the China-U.S. trade disputes. Therefore, this chapter begins with research questions, and subsequently, it will demonstrate the collected corpus and research methods for the present study.

3.1 Research questions

Given the several limitations mentioned above, there are in total three main research questions illustrated as follows:

(1)What judgment did the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson express in response to the journalists’ queries with regard to the China-U.S. Trade War?

(2)What appreciation did the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson express in response to the journalists’ queries with regard to the China-U.S. Trade War?

(3)What affect did the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson express in response to the journalists’ queries with regard to the China-U.S. Trade War?

3.2 Corpus for the study

In order to analyze how Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen utilize appropriate diplomatic discourses to safeguard economic rights and interests of our country, the present research collects the responses of spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Ministry of China to questions about China-U.S. Trade War raised by journalists in regular press conferences of Chinese Foreign Ministry from March 2018 to October 2019 on its official website (https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/). Every single one of Qamp;A is counted as one piece. The collected corpus comprise eighty-six written records of responses that concerned with the issue about China-U.S. trade war. Based on the fine-collected corpus, this current research targets to have a better comprehension of these diplomatic discourses and the role played by them in the defense of national economic rights and interests in the terms of bilateral trade frictions.

3.3 Research methods

For the sake of exploring attitudes, expressions and the maintenance of economic rights and interests of diplomatic discourses of the Foreign Ministry spokesmen of our country, Qualitative Analysis Method (QAM) is adopted in this present research under the framework of Appraisal Theory, the very superiority of which mainly lies in its holism which can both inspects the language used by the research subjects and takes the influence of the societal literacy environment into consideration(Sun, 2014). First and foremost, every single one of the collected corpus will be marked with three categories of attitudes which are judgment, appreciation and affect in accordance with the classification scheme of Appraisal System. Subsequently, based on the historical background of issues connected to China-U.S. trade war and related questions raised by domestic and foreign journalists, the present study will analyze in details the features and reasons for the utilization of diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen. What’s more, this preset research aims to make a delicate inquiry into the relevancy between diplomatic discourses of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen and the defense of economic rights and interests. Last but not least, the goal of the present research is to better comprehend the vital role diplomatic discourses play in the maintenance of national rights and interests in terms of economy in the broader ken.

4. Results and Discussion

In this chapter, results and the discussion of the current study on Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmen’s diplomatic discourses related to China-U.S. trade war from the perspective of Appraisal Theory are depicted in details.

4.1 Judgments of spokesmen

The judgment system makes the assessment of behaviors of human beings which is positive or the opposite in accordance to quite a few the social norms stipulated by the official system. Behaviors are generally judged as moral or immoral, legal or illegal, normal or abnormal, socially-acceptable or not and so on. Judgments of spokesmen involve judging the nature of behaviors of China and the U.S. and this issue itself and also China-U.S. lawful rights and interests.

4.1.1 Judgments of legitimate rights and interests

Legitimate interests and rights of economy are the innate assets and qualifications of a country. The statements made by spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on China's legitimate economic rights and interests is reasonable and fully in line with the facts. For example:

(1) Hua Chunying: China has all along followed the WTO rules and upheld the transparent, non-discriminatory, open, inclusive and rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core and based on rules. (2018-3-26)

(2) Lu Kang: The undeniable fact is that since its accession to the WTO, China has been strictly fulfilling its membership obligations and observing the WTO rules. And China has been firmly supporting the multilateral trading regime as an active participant and an important contributor. (2018-4-25)

(3) Lu Kang: Whatever remarkable achievements we have made in our development endeavors, they were made because we honor the international rules and we are a hardworking people. (2018-4-25)

(4) Hua Chunying: Every innovative achievement we have today is made through our 1.3 billion people's wisdom and hard-work, not by stealing or robbing. (2018-7-18)

In example (1) , the spokesman used “has all along followed with related rules” to judge China’s legitimate rights and interests. The spokesman used “the undeniable fact” and “has been firmly support” to judge that the rights and interests earned by China were absolutely lawful. Point at the report that the US Consul-General to Hong Kong said that China doesn't abide by the WTO rules, which harms the US interests and that China's economic volume and its success in world economy has catalyzed the idea that the global trade rules can be ignored, the response, “Because we honor the international rules and we are hardworking, we have made many remarkable achievements.” was utilized by the spokesman to judge all legitimate rights and interests of China. The similar judgment was also used by the spokesman in example (4).

4.1.2 Judgments of the nature of actions of China

In response to the U.S. accusations and doubts about China's tariffs and China's corresponding reactions to the U.S. tariffs on China, the spokesmen of the Foreign Ministry of China used “never intends to seek, and never agree with or accept, etc.” to clarify that China's economic rights and interests obtained by complying with internationally recognized regulations are completely legitimate and reasonable. For example:

(5) Hua Chunying: China never intends to seek surplus. (2018-3-21)

(6) Hua Chunying: We have also noted some reports accusing China of "economic aggression", a term we can never agree with or accept, because China could not be labeled as aggressive at all in any way. (2018-3-22)

In response to different opinions on whether impose tariffs on China from the U.S. and the European media, the spokesman utilized example (5). The spokesman used example (6) as the comment on the report that the White House said that President Trump is going to sign a Presidential Memorandum concerning China's "economic aggression" on March 22 EST.

4.1.3 Judgments of the nature of actions of the U.S.

When it came to the issue that United States has made its decision imposing the unfair tariffs on Chinese imports, the spokesman used “act in disregard of, acting in an arbitrary and reckless manner, too arrogant, ignore the call for ration and trying to shift the blame” to show that the economic actions of the U.S. were deliberately provocative and unreasonable in total. And the spokesman used discourse such as“ set a very bad example, miscalculate the situation, underestimate China, target everyone and the interests of all, wrong and irresponsible” to judge the erroneous practice of the U.S.. For instance:

(7) Hua Chunying: The US has acted in disregard of China's strengthened protection for intellectual property rights, the WTO rules and the call of the business community. (2018-3-23)

(8) Geng Shuang: Its(the U.S.) measures target everyone and the interests of all, not just China and China's interests.(2018-4-9)

(9) Hua Chunying: With regard to this issue of tariffs, the U.S. acting in an arbitrary and reckless manner is both wrong and irresponsible. (2018-3-23)

(10) Hua Chunying: Certain American official's remarks that “the era of economic surrender is over” sounds quite awkward and it seems that they were trying to shift the blame. (2018-3-26)

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