Comparative Analysis of Contemporary American–Chinese Political Rhetoric Based on Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address (2017–2020) and Xi Jinping’s report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to point out the differences between American and Chinese political discourse. This is examined by analyzing the speeches made at the most significant events in American and Chinese political life: Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address (2017–2020) and Xi Jinping’s report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. How do the leaders address the audience? What forms of verbal and nonverbal communication do they use? How do they communicate their message in an effective way? Before the corpus analysis, we briefly review the significance of the State of the Union Address and the General Secretary’s report and examine the origin of the texts. Next, in the speeches of the leaders, given the content of the texts the following rhetorical tools are examined: 1) presenting the past; 2) talking about the future; 3) calling for unity; 4) humour and irony; 5) addressing the audience; 6) metacommunication. The study shows that although the speeches contain rhetorical tools that can be classified in the same categories, there are differences in their content and direction.