Human Rights in China: A Pawn of a Political Agenda? A Content Analysis of The New York Times (1987-96)

A content analysis of ten years of New York Times coverage of human rights in China has found that The Times set its own agenda in covering human rights in China, apart from the US presidential agenda. While presidential concern about human rights in China subsided and US-China trade became a priority in the presidential agenda, The Times increasingly continued its coverage of human rights in China. There was no increase in presidential concern about human rights in China or increased Times coverage in the election years compared with non-election years. The evidence over ten years of news coverage also suggests that despite a relatively independent rate of production of human rights news stories by The Times, neither incumbent presidents nor their opponents treated human rights as a high visibility, independent issue or as a separate issue in foreign policy. Instead, references to human rights were consistently entwined with other issues, both foreign and domestic.