(iPoster) China-United States Rivalry in Annual Human Rights Reports (2002-2023)

• In Event: Poster Session: Various Interesting Foreign Policy

Abstract

The universality of human rights underscores the significance of human rights studies in U.S.-China rivalry and the narrative projection of two powers’ foreign policy making. Among the prominent areas of contentious issues in the bilateral relationship, human rights emerge as a focal point for diplomatic disputes and ideological rivalry. This study views human rights as a contested ideograph that links foreign policy narratives in public diplomacy to ideological competition. Through a mixed methodological approach, the research examines ideographic interpretations of human rights within the human rights reports released by the U.S. State Department and China’s State Council Information Office over the past two decades (2000-2022). Using computer-assisted topic modelling, the synchronic analysis examines how and to what extent the ideograph of human rights is associated with other ideographs within the annual diplomatic position papers within a specific timeframe, while the diachronic analysis explores variations in the interpretation of human rights over an extended period. Through computational sentiment analysis, this study aims to unveil the evolving intensity of negative sentiments as both nations seek to undermine each other’s reputation, identifying linguistic patterns that attribute responsibility in human rights reports. While the existent studies of the human rights issues in the bilateral relationship focus more on foreign policy practices, this comparative study extends the field into narrative and rhetoric. By contextualizing the rhetoric of human rights within the broader landscape of ideological competition, this paper sheds light on the empirical approach to the narrative construction in the ideological competition.

Author

• Keyu Alexander Chen Glanz, Georgia State University