The national security law for Hong Kong: a corpus-driven comparative study of media representations between China’s and Anglo-American English-language press

Abstract

The study conducts a comparative phraseological analysis of media representations associated with the National Security Law for Hong Kong between China’s and Anglo-American English-language press. Based on a corpus-driven methodology, four framing functions, i.e., politics and law, protests and crime, action and future, and evaluation are identified to suggest how the legislation is addressed and understood in different press. The findings demonstrate that the Chinese press prefers to solely highlight the law’s potential benefits and its favorable results, whereas the Anglo-American press is inclined to construct the law as a weapon deployed by China to threaten Hong Kong’s legal system and undermine its democratic autonomy. The study discusses the newly politicalized Hong Kong in different socio-political practices and geopolitical tensions between China and the West.