Rivalry on Human Rights: Narratives in Human Rights Reports of the United States and China

Human rights have developed into one of the most polarizing issues within the US-China relations, reflecting deeply-rooted ideological divisions between two powers. While current studies often focus on the human rights politics of each country in isolation, there is a lack of comparative analysis of their respective human rights narratives. This study employs an innovative narrative approach to contextualise the study of human rights in the US–China competition. By examining how the US and China have competed in human rights reports during the past two decades through cluster and linguistic analysis, this study reveals divergent strategies of both powers to conceptualise human rights, assign responsibility, delegitimise the rival political systems, and undermine the rival's global reputation on human rights. The findings have implications for the fields of foreign policy narrative and the US–China relations.