The Roles Of American Press In American China Trade Policy Making From 1990-2002

This thesis is an attempt to study the kind of roles that American press plays in the making of U.S. trade policy toward China from 1990 to 2002 through comparing data from two sources.The data on American press coverage of China are collected from four influential American newspapers- The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Los Angeles Times. The data are processed along three lines: the volume of press coverage, range of topics, and attitudes revealed.The data on U.S. government policies are collected from public documents of United States Trade Representative Office. These data are also examined along three lines: government attention, concern and stand.Through comparison, it is found that American press plays multiple roles as follows:1. a primarily passive role evidenced by the fact that the American press examined as a whole is consistent with the overall government attention and agenda, and specifically with government attention and stands on issues regarding China's MFN/NTR/PNTR status and GATT/WTO entry;2. an independent role to a certain extent as seen in the difference in attitudes and attention between the press and American government on issues like Sino-U.S. trade and intellectual property protection in China;3. an informative role embodied in the press coverage of eight topics which are not on the government agenda but reflect the press's responsibility of information dissemination to the public;4. a watchdog role manifested in the difference between the press and the government in their attitudes toward U.S. intellectual property policy toward China.It is concluded that American press plays multiple roles in the making of U.S. trade policies toward China. Among these roles, the passive role of the press is dominant and present in almost all aspects, though the press plays other roles like an independent actor, information provider and government watchdog. Therefore, it can be said that the role of American press in the making of U.S. China trade policy is not direct or significant.