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13 - From Collision to Diplomatic Compromise

“We are very sorry” – One Official Utterance, Different Interpretations in the Chinese and US Mainstream News Coverage of the 2001 Mid-Air Collision

from Part III - Media Discourse and Conflict Resolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2022

By
Lutgard Lams
Edited by
Innocent Chiluwa
Innocent Chiluwa
Affiliation:
Covenant University, Nigeria
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Summary

The present study draws on speech act theory to discuss the constitutive role of the media in influencing and interpreting official apologies in the realm of international conflict resolution. The Sino–US diplomatic impasse after a plane collision over the South China Sea on April 1, 2001 proved to be a useful case study as it revolved around blame attribution/avoidance and demands for/refusal of an official apology. The Chinese requests for a formal US apology and the latter’s expressions of regret were discursive issues of contention and subject to different media interpretations. Results show that the US and Chinese media participated in negotiating an American expression of “apology/regret,” disseminating the message through skillful translation techniques, and metapragmatically interpreting its significance.

Keywords

political apologyblame attribution/avoidanceEP-3 collisionSino–US diplomatic conflictspeech act theorymedia analysis
Type
Chapter
Information
Discourse, Media, and Conflict
Examining War and Resolution in the News
 , pp. 300 - 323
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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