A Study On The Discourse Dissemination Of US Think Tanks During The South China Sea Arbitration

American think tanks are contributing to the sustainable research of U.S.government policies,especially the state's foreign policy.In the past decade,the United States has deeply involved in the affairs of the South China Sea to restrain China's development in the South China Sea.Regarding to the complex and multi-interest area of South China Sea,think tanks play an important role in the formulating the U.S.foreign policy and the construction of an international discourse system.The discourse dissemination of American think tanks influences the understanding and judgment of the public on the related issues,which in turn affects the trend of the issues themselves.This article selects the top three U.S.think tanks in “2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report”,the Brookings Institution,the Council on Foreign Relations,and the Center for Strategic and International Studies,as the research objects.This thesis attempts to divide American think-tank discourse into the American think tank's own discourse and American think-tank experts' discourse in the media,and analyzes the American think-tank discourse by using critical discourse analysis and "problemsolution" framework analysis respectively.The research tries to figure out four questions as follow:(1)what kind of situation in the South China Sea the US think tanks show to the audience?(2)what kind of Chinese military image in the South China Sea the US think tanks show to the audience?(3)considered as sources,what role the US think tanks' discourse plays in the news reporting?(4)regarding to the South China Sea dispute,how does the US think tanks' discourse generate,disseminate and consolidate? The findings show that the US think tank cleverly used over-wording strategy,metaphorical strategy and article structure strategy to show the audience the rising China's aggression to its weak neighbors Moreover,the South China Sea dispute described by US think tank is resulted from China's illegal military behaviors and shape China as a trouble maker in the dispute.When reporting issues about South China Sea,foreign media inclines to quote experts from the U.S.think tanks as an explanation and analysis of the incident as well as suggestions for resolving related issues.However,most discourse of experts cited by foreign media shape negative image of China in South China Sea.In the production of discourse on South China Sea,the thesis finds “revolving door” among the experts and the think tanks could generate and disseminate discourse which is behalf of US strategic interests by conference and national testification.In the end,after analyzing the production,dissemination and integration of the US think tanks' discourse related in the south China sea dispute,the thesis offers some suggestions for Chinese think tanks' effective discourse dissemination,in aim to show the audiences a real South China Sea dispute.