Arresting a Chinese Tech Princess: discourses in the Canadian national news media

By arresting Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, Canada lit the fuse for an international incident that has had serious consequences for the nation and its allies. Meng’s arrest is therefore a valuable case study to identify whose voices have the most power over messaging in the Canadian national news media. Using a critical discourse analysis of news quotations, this study identifies three main discourses circulating in news about Meng’s arrest and provides insight into how those discourses are linked to powerful individuals and interest groups at five levels of analysis. This study finds that the national news media positions Meng’s arrest as part of a larger geo-political struggle between East and West. An analysis of quotation patterns and citation routines show that Chinese government quotes are positioned less objectively than quotes from either the US or Canadian government suggesting a bias toward “Western” elite sources, especially governments and experts.