Sino-Japanese Territorial Disputes through the Lens of Mainstream American Media: The New York Times from 1980-2010

    Abstract: Building a positive national image and objective and favorable international opinion are important elements of a state’s foreign diplomacy. From both the perspective of strategy and national interests, Sino-Japanese relations are critical for China. Nonetheless, bilateral territorial disputes continue to be a key barrier for both state to state and people to people relations between the two countries. Both China’s Japan policy and Japan’s China policy cannot escape American influence. In the United States, mass media play a key behind the scenes role in determining the American government’s foreign policy. The authors have collected 98 reports on Sino-Japanese territorial disputes from the American mainstream media outlet, The New York Times from 1980-2010, and categorize and analyze them towards the goal of illustrating the views of mainstream American opinion towards Sino-Japanese bilateral ties under different time periods.