Abstract:
The relation between the United States and China has been one of the most pivotal in the 21st century. Since the rapprochement and normalization, the characteristics of this relationship have changed under different aspects. This paper aims to define the recent development of political discourses through the analysis of the official presidential speeches of president Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
The perspective and the methods chosen for this research is that of political discourse analysis, where discourse is meant as a set of ideas portraying the relationship among international actors, which is here intended as a communicative relation. It is a complex but interesting perspective in IR theory. The first concern would, therefore, be the one of exposing the theoretical basis of discourse analysis and the method used to conduct this research.
The main chapters are then focused on the analysis itself of the American and the Chinese discourses. A historical, political and cultural background is provided at the beginning of each chapter for the sake of understanding the context of this analysis. In conclusion, I would like to present the general lines of the recent development of the Sino American discourse, with an overlook of the possible future of this relation.
