Change And Continuity:A Comparative Study Of Perceptions Of China Under The Bush Administration And The Obama Administration Through Textual Analysis Of Official Speech Acts

U.S.-China relationship is one of the most important and the most complicated bilateral ones in contemporary international relations.To understand U.S.-China relationship,one should firstly comprehend how both sides perceive each other,because decision-makers’ perceptions about objective world and other nations is the prerequisite for explaining why and how specific policies and decisions are made.Many scholars delve into America’s perceptions of China largely from media,public diplomacy,and historical perspectives,leaving governmental perspective seldom touched.Therefore,the thesis attempts to scrutinize perceptions of China from American governmental dimension,trying to unveil how the Bush and the Obama administrations perceived China in order to understand where the U.S.global interests lie and to interpret U.S.foreign policies in the 21st century.Assisted by textual analysis of qualitative method and constructivism theory in international relations,the study explores American government’s perceptions of China through analyzing "speech acts",which include official documents,public speeches,and public talks of leading officials in the executive branch of the George W.Bush administration and the Barack Obama administration,comparing the change and continuity between the perceptions formed by the two administrations and striving to explain rationales behind the change and continuity.The study embarks on perception of China under the Bush and the Obama governments,dividing the analysis into three layers,which are security,economy,and value,the three basic concerns pertaining to U.S.national interests.Concrete evidence provides diversified perceptions of China.In the security domain,both the Bush and the Obama governments perceived China as a competitor that challenged America’s international order by modernizing Chinese military capabilities,and perceived China as a partner that can be cooperated with in counterterrorism,but in terms of combating climate change,perception of China grew from a non-cooperator in Bush period to a partner in Obama time.In the economic domain,China was perceived as a competitor despite U.S and China have maintained abundant economic exchanges and growing trade volume after China officially entered the World Trade Organization.In the value domain,the two administrations all perceived China as an enemy trampling universal values,especially human rights,which are constantly hailed by American government.The study finds that rationales behind the change and continuity are twofold.On one hand.officials in president’s cabinet represented diversified ideologies and values that dictated individuals to act and think in different ways,which led to different perceptions of China.On the other hand,constructivist concept of "agent’s desire of maintaining rules" explains the change and continuity,which occurs when leading nation feels challenged by emerging nations who try to reverse the situation by changing the status-quo originally set by the leading nation.In order to maintain the status-quo,the leading nation seeks every possible ways,either by degradation of perception or elevation of perception,to preserve the rules that can maximize its interests.Similarly,the different ways of perceiving China in various domains in fact reflect the two administrations’ priority to preserve international order set by the U.S.In short,to understand rationales behind the change and continuity,ideology and desire of maintaining rules are the keys.