A Study On The Construction Of Diplomatic Discourse In Major Public Opinion Events

Standing at the crossroads of the "unprecedented changes of the century",China has taken the initiative to seek greater diplomatic discourse,to participate in international affairs in a more proactive manner,and to engage head-on in the arena of international public opinion.As China’s international status and comprehensive national power increase,China’s voice is gradually being heard by the world.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs,as an important window for China’s external communication,especially the speeches of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in answering questions from journalists,is the mouthpiece of the national voice,spreading China’s attitude to the domestic and foreign communities.However,the current situation of "West is strong and East is weak" in the international public opinion arena has not yet changed,and Western countries are still fabricating and distorting facts to discredit China’s image.Therefore,under the heavy pressure of Western discourse hegemony,China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,as the frontline of international communication,should take up the important task of demonstrating the national attitude and countering malicious public opinion,so as to promote China’s superior position in the international public opinion arena.Based on framing theory,agenda-setting theory and discourse power theory,this paper compares and contrasts the speeches of Chinese and American diplomatic spokespersons,mainly using Zang Guoren’s three-level framing theory as the analytical framework and focusing on the public opinion exchanges between China and the United States on the "Xinjiang cotton" incident from 2021 to 2022.The study found that,in response to this issue,Chinese and American diplomatic spokesmen have made a long-term diplomatic statement,and each of their statements has become the focus of public opinion at home and abroad,and various voices in the international community to form a succession of discourse wrestling,and behind the discourse is the relationship between the power struggle between the various countries.Based on the textual analysis method,discourse analysis method and comparative analysis method,the paper finally comes up with a discourse strategy regarding the diplomatic speeches of China and the United States,and proposes a reference path for constructing China’s discourse strategy in terms of issue setting,discourse system and narrative perspective,in order to create a favorable international public opinion atmosphere and establish a positive and active international image for China.In conclusion,this paper will creatively incorporate communication theory into the study of the spokesperson’s discourse strategy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,which can not only study international political issues and diplomatic events in the context of the field of journalism and communication,but also have certain guiding significance for the construction of China’s foreign discourse system,so that China’s foreign communication system can be more systematic and complete,and move towards rationality and maturity.