Aggressiveness in Chinese Foreign Ministers' Responses to Journalists During Press Conferences, 1996–2016

Authors

  • Feng Wu School of Journalism and New Media at Xi’an Jiaotong University
  • Jiahui Zhang Jiangnan University, China

Keywords:

press conference, aggressiveness, diplomacy, international relations, China

Abstract

Chinese foreign ministers’ press conferences are significant occasions for journalists to learn about the country’s policies and attitudes toward heated and important issues. This study analyzes and measures Chinese foreign ministers’ aggressiveness in response to journalists’ questions at press conferences between 1996 and 2016 with an IDAAA (initiative, directness, assertiveness, adversarialness, and accountability) framework. The results indicate that foreign ministers become significantly less aggressive over time and that the higher China’s gross domestic product ranking is, the more aggressive they are and vice versa. In addition, Chinese foreign ministers tend to be more aggressive toward sensitive questions, foreign journalists, and those from countries with worse diplomatic relations with China, and they tend to be less aggressive toward nonsensitive questions, domestic journalists, and those from countries with whom China has good relations. Finally, foreign ministers with overseas educational experiences are less aggressive than those who did not receive this type of education.

Author Biographies

Feng Wu, School of Journalism and New Media at Xi’an Jiaotong University

Prof. Feng Wu (Ph.D, School of Journalism and Communication, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 2009) is a full professor of School of Journalism and New Media at Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, Shaanxi, P. R. China. His research interests include: Chinese national leader’s press conferences, Chinese political communication, quantitative research, Chinese newspaper marketing & management, culture industry, and new media. He is a productive young researcher. In recent three years, he had published two English articles in leading journals indexed in SSCI, and more than thirty Chinese articles in leading journals in journalism & communications field (indexed in CSSCI). In 2016, he presented his paper at the 66th ICA conference, and had won the honor of “Best Papers from CCA and KACA”. Moreover, he has finished more than 10 important projects (funded and principal investigator). By the end of 2017, his total fund is about one million (¥2.0 million, about $ 0.6 million), which is outstanding compared with his peers.

Jiahui Zhang, Jiangnan University, China

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Published

2018-06-14

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Articles