Discursive Construction Of China’s Image In The Politeness Strategies Of Foreign Ministry Spokesperson

In January 2018,the government of the United States sanctioned on series of Chinese commodities,as an opening act of trade disputes with China.Later,the disputed fields have expanded and received wide attention from the world.Voices from the two sides are made through varied stages and media,among which the press conference held by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves as a major official channel to demonstrate the stance and policy about trade disputes on the Chinese side,and in the meantime,presents China’s image to the world.With Brown&Levinson’s politeness strategy theory and Fairclough’s three-dimensional approach of discourse analysis as theoretical frameworks,92 remarks on Sino-US trade disputes by Hua Chunying,spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,at the regular press conferences from January 23^rd,2018 to October 23^rd,2019as the data,this study is to address two research questions:（1）What are the features of politeness strategy employment by Hua Chunying in her remarks on Sino-US trade disputes in Foreign Ministry’s press conference?（2）What national image has been constructed through the employment of these politeness strategies?Data analysis shows that Hua Chunying adopts four sets of politeness strategies in her remarks.Among them,“Negative politeness”is of the highest frequency with 282cases,occupying 53.92%of all the strategy employed.The second is“Positive politeness”with 112 cases,accounting for 21.42%;“Off record”ranks the third with95 cases,accounting for 18.16%;and“Bald on record”occurs least with 34 cases,accounting for 6.50%.In all the strategies employed,in addition to“Bald on record”strategy,six strategies are mainly used for national image construction,i.e.the three“Positive politeness”strategies“Give gifts to H”,“Assume or assert reciprocity”and“Offer and promise”,taking up 62.50%,17.857%and 10.714%of the“Positive politeness”respectively;the strategy“State the FTA as a general rule”,taking up 5.674%of the“Negative politeness”strategies;and the two“Off record”strategies“Presuppose”and“Use metaphors”,numbering 21.052%and 13.684%of the“Off record”employment respectively.With these politeness strategies,generally three kinds of national images are constructed.（1）China’s image as a sincere partner:it is presented through the utilization of the three“Positive politeness”strategies:“Give gifts to H”,“Assume or assert reciprocity”and“Offer and promise”.（2）The image as a pragmatic upholder:it is constructed by the application of the three strategies“Bald on record”,“State the FTA as a general rule”of“Negative politeness”and“Offer and promise”of“Positive politeness”.（3）China’s image as a firm and steady defender:it is molded with the adoption of the three strategies“Bald on record”,strategies“Presuppose”and“Use metaphors”of“Off record”.The underlying reasons for these image constructions are discussed from the three aspects:the institutional occasion for making prompt and outward voice,the requirement for protecting national interests and declaring opening-up policies,and the influence of traditional culture,like collective consciousness as well as the pursuit of harmony.