Legitimation contestation of the “Chinese car threat” narrative in the digitized public sphere: a critical discourse analysis

Since the escalation of the Sino-U.S. trade dispute, the “China Threat” narrative has increasingly challenged the legitimacy of Chinese companies in global markets. Building upon growing scholarship on legitimation in digital contexts, this study focuses on how the public actively evaluates and contests institutional narratives online. In 2024, the U.S. government initiated the “Chinese Car Threat” narrative, which was disseminated through mainstream media and sparked extensive online discussions. Employing a Critical Discourse Analysis approach to analyse legitimation strategies in official statements, media reports, and online comments, the analysis shows that while official and media “national security” discourses employ group polarization and threat proximization strategies to construct a perceived threat from Chinese automobiles, public discourse in the examined comments primarily demonstrates active resistance through normalization, de-moralization and de-rationalization strategies. The results illustrate how legitimation can operate as an interactive argumentative process in digital spaces, offering insights into the complexity of public legitimacy judgments when citizens engage with official and media narratives. The findings offer insights for organizations on how to counter legitimacy challenges with public-aligned narratives and highlight for policymakers the limitations of threat-based narratives in digital contexts, where online contestation impacts policy legitimacy and socio-economic viability.