Framing Huawei: from the target of national debate to the site of international conflict in Canada’s mainstream online newspaper

Abstract Purpose This study was conducted to investigate the Canadian mainstream online media report of Huawei, the Chinese IT company and critical actor in China’s OFDI attempt, and how the media deviate or conform to the Government’s and the social and political elites’ position(s). Design/methodology/approach Content analysis and discourse analysis were performed to analyse the news articles from The Globe and Mail concerning Huawei from the beginning of 2018 to March 2019. Public opinions, represented by the Nanos polls available from the news articles were also analysed. Findings We found that Huawei was mainly framed as national security threat vs valued partner in the national debate whether to allow Huawei to contribute to Canada’s 5G construction before the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, and the centre of the Sino-West conflict after the critical incident. The Globe and Mail tried to index multiple sources, while sticking to the long-formed schema about China and Chinese enterprises, which has a deep effect on the public opinions. The journalists rose to be the predominant source of the news report and seemed to be acting on their own after the critical incident, showing an event-driven tendency. Practical implications It helps the readers to understand the bias embedded in media report in its political contexts. Journalists should take caution because they could reenforce the same schema even though efforts have been made to maintain media’s democratic façade. Social implications It shows that MNCs and international media have a much closer relationship than we expect. The media in the western world could make or break a MNC’s prospect in a country. Originality/value It contributes to the contextualization of such media theories as indexing hypothesis and cascading activation model. In an era of anti-globalization and media war, such theories need to be re-examined especially when it comes to the report about foreign affairs concerning a country and its MNCs from a different ideological camp.