Dealing With Western News Commentaries On China:Rhetorical Issues And Their Solutions

With the rapid development of a public sphere in China, which has resulted in increasingly diversified public opinions, ordinary citizens in this country have shown an unprecedented enthusiasm for participation in discussions of hot issues. Being a key genre of journalistic writings, news commentary plays a crucial role in shaping and guiding public opinion, and comments in mass media, especially in influential media outlets, tend to impact on the society in a way that was hardly imaginable only a couple of years ago. Such a situation could not but alert us to the fact that news commentaries often reflect and represent special interests and they could not but be partial in the perspectives they offer. As the existing special interests conflict with each other, so in news commentaries there is always a "war of words" going on.In recent years, because of China’s economic takeoff, foreign news commentaries on Chinese affairs tend to flood international media. Among these some may be praised for their balanced perspective, most, however, are less than objective or only seemingly impartial but actually prejudiced in nature, including those imbued with personal prejudices or even with a special economic or political axe to grind. The impact of inappropriate commentaries on news can be destructive, they may mislead people, even instigate social unrests. Therefore, it is necessary for us to learn to recognize the disguised backgrounds or hidden intentions within those commentaries and suggest certain solutions in responding to news commentaries on China.Starting with an introduction to three important rhetorical theories-Loyld Bitzer’s rhetorical situation, Aristotle’s means of persuasion and Hermagoras’s stasis theory, we analyze the relationship between rhetoric and news commentary by taking a piece of news commentary on Chinese innovation published on the Wall Street Journal as an example. In so doing, this paper casts light on the rhetorical situations, persuasive appeals, and rhetrickeries we come across in news commentaries, with an aim to proposing certain solutions for dealing with news commentaries on China, helping build a rhetorical consciousness in people concerned, and deepening the academic recognition of rhetoric thus elevating the status of western rhetoric at the same time.