Legitimation as Discursive Strategies in International Media Coverage of China’s Demographic Problems

This study applies T. van Leeuwen’s theoretical framework of discursive legitimation to analyze strategies employed by American media in covering China’s demographic issues from 2021 to 2024. Through critical discourse analysis of content from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, the research examines how strategies of authority, moral evaluation, rationalization, normalization, and narrativization are utilized in constructing China’s image. Findings reveal that American media predominantly delegitimize China’s demographic issues while legitimizing Western perspectives, applying double standards when evaluating similar actions by the US and China. The study demonstrates that demographic media discourse functions not merely as an information tool but as a powerful mechanism for shaping a nation’s international image through legitimizing the “self” and delegitimizing the “other.”