Abstract
This study conducts a comparative discourse analysis of media framing associated with the 2021 Suez Canal blockage in Chinese and American English-language press. Using a corpus-driven keyword analysis, it identifies four semantic frames, namely problem definition, causal interpretation, consequential impact, and proposed solutions. Findings reveal divergent framing strategies, with Chinese media framing the event as a manageable disruption while strategically promoting the Belt and Road Initiative as a solution, whereas American media emphasized its unpredictability and focused extensively on the economic disruptions. The study contends that such strategies stem from the two nations’ distinct positions within global supply chains under economic globalization. It contributes by transcending a purely economic lens to illustrate how socio-political orientations are woven into media discourse to influence public perception.
Introduction
In March 2021, the Suez Canal experienced an unprecedented week-long disruption when the mega-container ship Ever Given ran aground. This incident occurred against the backdrop of a strained global economy grappling with the Covid-19 recession (Ahmed & Sarkodie, 2021; Nicola et al., 2020). It amplified international concerns, given that approximately 12% of global trade volume traverses this strategic waterway (Feyrer, 2021). The prolonged obstruction exacerbated existing supply chain vulnerabilities, pushing the global supply-demand imbalance to critical levels and further compounding pandemic-induced economic challenges (Fuchs et al., 2021). The Suez Canal blockage (SCB) rapidly dominated global news headlines, emerging as a focal point of international media coverage. The economic repercussions were particularly acute for demand-side economies, with the United States experiencing significant disruptions including critical shortages of consumer goods, manufacturing standstills, and mounting concerns over escalating energy prices (Özkanlisoy & Akkartal, 2022). In contrast, supply-side nations, particularly China as the world’s largest manufacturing hub, maintained a notably composed stance. Chinese media coverage strategically emphasized the economic challenges faced by external markets while asserting domestic stability through what was portrayed as prescient political leadership and policy foresight (Liu, 2021).
These divergent patterns in news representation align with established scholarship demonstrating media’s intrinsic connection to economic, political, and socio-cultural dimensions (Baker et al., 2020; Fryberg et al., 2012; Wang & Ma, 2021). However, existing research has yet to systematically examine how nations occupying opposing positions in the global supply chain framed this unprecedented maritime disruption. In particular, it remains unclear how China and the United States, representing supply-side and demand-side economies respectively, constructed their frames within distinct socio-political and economic contexts. This study seeks to address this lacuna by examining how Chinese and American media outlets linguistically framed the SCB within the broader context of Covid-19 pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions.
Recognizing that media representation inherently embodies ideological positions rather than presenting neutral accounts of reality (Fairclough, 2012; Fowler, 1991), this study particularly focuses on how competing ideological frames manifest in discursive practices. The research pursues two primary objectives through corpus-driven discourse analysis: (a) to systematically identify and quantify the nature and extent of divergences in Chinese and American media framing of the SCB, and (b) to elucidate the underlying economic and socio-political determinants shaping these distinct representational patterns.
The Suez Canal Blockage
Strategically located at a crucial juncture connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Suez Canal serves as an indispensable economic corridor. It facilitates a substantial proportion of Asian exports destined for European and North American markets. The SCB attracted significant scholarly attention because of its profound economic repercussions, as the week-long closure precipitated a critical disruption to global supply chain networks (Fuchs et al., 2021; Lee & Wong, 2021; Saeed et al., 2021). Prior to this maritime crisis, China had already implemented stringent Covid-19 containment measures that severely constrained international shipping capacity. The resulting backlog of shipments at Chinese ports exacerbated global supply shortages, creating a perfect storm of supply chain vulnerabilities that reached its zenith with the obstruction of this vital maritime artery (Fuchs et al., 2021; Lee & Wong, 2021).
Although the impact of the SCB on the US was primarily indirect, it nevertheless significantly disrupted the supply chain for components and finished goods manufactured in Europe and destined for the world’s largest importer. This disruption proved detrimental to the US economy due to its reliance on just-in-time inventory management systems (Lee & Wong, 2021). The economic ramifications of the blockage extended beyond logistics. Piao et al. (2021) document that it generated substantial public concern regarding production continuity and price stability. These anxieties were exacerbated by a sharp escalation in crude oil prices following the blockage.
While the SCB disrupt shipments for Chinese enterprises, its economic impact on China was relatively contained and transient in nature (Liu, 2021). This resilience can be largely attributed to China’s strategic development of alternative trade corridors through the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious infrastructure network designed to enhance connectivity between China and its trading partners across Asia and Europe. Likewise, Saeed et al. (2021) demonstrate that the Belt and Road Initiative has fundamentally transformed global maritime logistics through its unprecedented scale, scope, and capacity. It has simultaneously stimulated multilateral trade growth while reinforcing China’s trade and energy security framework. The extensive media coverage of the SCB’s impact may exert a profound influence beyond the economic dimensions of China-United States relations. This study conducts a comparative analysis of how Chinese and American media employ distinct narratives to serve different socio-political objectives.
Media Framing
Media discourse serves as a powerful lens for ideological analysis, as the journalistic process inherently involves the application of a journalist’s “mental models,” cognitive frameworks that reflect the dominant ideological paradigms of their societal context (Van Dijk, 1988). Building on this perspective, Fairclough (2015) argues that societal ideologies emerge through the naturalization of dominant class practices. Journalists, operating within this framework, inevitably internalize and reproduce the “unquestioned values” and implicit assumptions embedded in their community’s economic systems, political structures, and social norms, resulting in mediated constructions of reality. These interpretative frames in media discourse are fundamentally shaped by patterns of emphasis and exclusion. Consequently, analysing both the presence and absence of specific realities within media frames provides valuable insights into the underlying economic and socio-political forces that shape media narratives.
At the discourse level, methodological approaches to frame analysis predominantly focus on content analysis which typically employs qualitative methodologies, emphasizing in-depth examination of recurring themes and narrative patterns within the discourse. This approach prioritizes the interpretive understanding of how specific themes are constructed and positioned within the broader discursive framework (Atanasova & Koteyko 2017; McDonnell & Murphy 2019; Ogbodo et al., 2020). For example, McDonnell and Murphy (2019) employed inductive content analysis to identify four predominant frames in Irish media coverage of abortion. Expanding methodological rigor, Atanasova and Koteyko (2017) incorporated deductive procedures in their comparative analysis of obesity frames and counter-frames in British and German online newspapers. However, both studies relied primarily on manual coding procedures. Although potentially strengthened by synthesizing inductive and deductive approaches, they remain limited in scalability and reproducibility (Van Gorp, 2010).
The field has witnessed a methodological shift toward quantitative corpus approaches, utilizing keywords as analytical entry points (Atanasova et al., 2019; Baker, 2004; Zottola et al., 2020). For instance, Atanasova et al. (2019) developed a corpus-driven methodology that combined keyword generation with qualitative concordance analysis to examine frames in mental health and arts participation discourse. Building on this approach, Baker et al. (2020) advanced the methodology by employing corpus linguistic tool Wmatrix (Rayson, 2008) for automated keyword grouping in their obesity-related research. While computational tools enhance methodological precision in keyword identification and classification, the interpretive dimension of media framing still fundamentally relies on qualitative analysis.
In the current study, we propose an innovative methodological approach by applying Sinclair’s (2004) framework of phraseological analysis of keywords to identify frames. This approach aims to provide deeper insights into meaning construction within media framing through the examination of lexical patterns and collocational relationships.
Analytical Frameworks
Frames are fundamentally “manifested by the presence and absence of certain keywords” (Entman, 1993, p. 52). This theoretical premise underscores the importance of frame identification through concordance examination of keywords. In the present study, keywords are operationally defined as statistically significant lexical items that emerge through comparative analysis between a study corpus and a reference corpus, thereby revealing the distinctive thematic foci of the former relative to the latter (Stubbs, 2010). This corpus-driven approach to keyword identification proves particularly advantageous for our comparative research design, as it provides an empirically grounded method for uncovering cross-cultural variations in framing patterns.
Entman (1993, p. 52) posits that to frame is “to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” Problem definition is to determine the causal agent; causal interpretation concerns identifying the forces which create the problem; moral evaluation means to evaluate outcomes of the problem; treatment recommendation pertains to providing remedies to the outcomes and problems. The four categories are also referred to as problem definition, cause, consequence and solution. As such, keywords are grouped into four semantic frames by narrowing shared attributes-characterizing keywords as similar or related.
Phraseological analysis of keywords within each frame contributes to deductive disclosure of media framing of the SCB between Chinese and American press. Sinclair’s (2004, p. 121) phraseology is a lexical description that “realized an element of meaning which is a function of the lexical item in its cotext and context.” Through the examination of collocational patterns and lexical relationships of keywords, researchers will uncover how specific meanings are organized and emphasized within discourse, making frame structures more salient and analytically accessible. In Sinclairian phraseology, the five categories of co-selection include two obligatory categories, namely the core and semantic prosody, and three optional ones which include collocation, colligation and semantic preference. A core, i.e. a keyword in the current research, is the “invariable, and constitutes the evidence of the occurrence of the item as a whole” (Sinclair, 2004, p. 141); semantic prosody is “the determiner of the meaning of the whole lexical item” and shows “how the rest of the item is to be interpreted functionally” (Sinclair, 2004, p. 141). For instance, when the lexical item “Hong Kong” consistently co-occurs with collocates emphasizing resilience, such expressions highlighting an indomitable “can-do” spirit, then the semantic prosody constructs an optimistic representation of the city (Cheng, 2006). Regarding the three optional categories, collocation is “the co-occurrence of words with no more than four intervening words” (Sinclair, 2004, p. 141); colligation is “co-occurrence of grammatical choices” (Sinclair, 2004, p. 141); semantic preference is “the restriction of regular co-occurrence to items which share a semantic feature” (Sinclair, 2004, p. 141). Distinction between semantic prosody and semantic preference is that semantic prosody captures the overall atmosphere brought by co-occurrences, whereas semantic preference expresses their common semantic features.
Phraseological analysis employing the five categories of co-selection starts with a close examination of concordance lines of the keywords in order to uncover a semantic preference to which a semantic prosody of an attitudinal meaning is applied. This framework has prompted scholars to focus on media framing of socio-political events (Cheng, 2006; Cheng & Lam, 2013). They show a connection between Sinclairian phraseological analysis of lexical items and the associated social, political and ideological positions they entail. For example, Cheng and Lam (2013) conduct a diachronic study that focuses on the phraseological analysis of the two-word concgram political/Hong Kong, finding that western perceptions of Hong Kong have undergone noticeable social, political, and ideological shifts.
Methodology
To compare how Chinese and American media framed the SCB, Chinese media corpus (CMC) and American media corpus (AMC) were compiled. All news texts are in English and were retrieved from newspaper database LexisNexis. The selection criteria were rigorously defined to ensure that the SCB served as the central focus of each news report, rather than appearing as a peripheral reference or secondary topic. CMC contains news texts from China Daily, Global Times, Xinhua Net, CGTN, People’s Daily, Shenzhen Daily and Shanghai Daily, all of which are state-owned official media representing the Chinese government’s ideologically construed social and political positions. The English version of Chinese media is to communicate politically correct information to the world (Wu & Man, 1997) and is more socially positive (Yu, 1997). The selection of news articles from China’s state-owned political broadsheets offers strategic access to official media framing of the SCB.
AMC comprises news articles from prominent newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, USA Today, NBC, Chicago Daily Herald, The Christian Science Monitor, and Tribune-Review. These media organizations are recognized for their liberal editorial orientation (McQuail, 1987) and exemplify the American model of market-driven journalism, which strategically balances public interest with commercial imperatives (Watson, 1998). They maintain a professional commitment to journalistic principles of truth-seeking, objectivity, and neutrality (Wu, et al., 2014). The temporal scope of the study encompasses a critical 18-day period from March 23 to April 9, 2021. This carefully selected timeframe captures both the immediate crisis coverage of the SCB and the subsequent analytical reporting that followed the vessel’s refloating. This approach ensures the inclusion of media responses that evolved from real-time updates and governmental reactions. It also captures broader evaluations of economic and geopolitical implications, without extending into later unrelated discussions. Duplicates, newswires and by-lines were eliminated before building into two corpora between CMC consisting of 84 texts (33,405 words) and AMC 95 texts (74,177words).
Corpus-driven is understood as making inductive reasoning from corpus data to identify useful regularities for broader conclusions (Cheng, 2012). As a first step, the corpora CMC and AMC are swapped with each other as study corpus and reference corpus to generate two keyword lists using the corpus linguistic tool AntConc (Anthony, 2020). Culpeper (2009) contends that the closer the relationship between the target and reference corpora, the more likely the keywords are to reflect the target corpus’s specific qualities. Keywords were extracted using a log-likelihood test, with statistical significance set at a p < .0001. This threshold yielded 18 and 14 keywords respectively (see Table 1). Grammatical words, units of measurement, and other non-lexical words are excluded for the purpose of focusing on lexically-rich keywords.
Keywords in CMC and AMC when p < .0001.
Secondly, potential keywords are examined and categorized into four semantic frames, namely problem definition, causal interpretation, consequential impact, and proposed solutions (Entman, 1993). The corpus-driven frame identification process starts with a close examination of each keyword’s concordances in its cotext and context. This classification process is fundamentally inductive in nature and is designed to identify and categorize the semantic frames for the keywords. The reliability of the keyword categorization was assessed by calculating inter-coder agreement for each category using Cohen’s kappa coefficient in SPSS. The resulting score was .662, indicating a moderate level of agreement.
Finally, the analytical process culminates in tracing media framing of the SCB through Sinclair’s (2004) phraseological analysis of keywords. The focus of the study is on the collocates of keywords. Thus, the analysis shows the importance of looking at phraseological units rather than individual words. The LogDice measure was chosen because it expresses the typicality of a collocation and has a tendency to favor reasonably low-frequency collocates (Baker, 2023). The study complements keyword analysis with an in-depth examination of the economic and socio-political determinants behind the divergent framing strategies in Chinese and American media. Regarding methodological considerations, it is important to note that while our corpus-driven frame identification may yield a relatively limited number of keywords, this does not compromise the validity of our findings.
Findings
In the subsequent analytical section, we systematically examine media framing of the SCB through a comprehensive phraseological analysis of keywords corresponding to four identified semantic frames (see Table 2). By tracing the lexical patterns and collocational relationships of the keywords, we aim to uncover how different media systems construct distinct narratives that reflect and serve their respective national interests and ideological orientations.
Selected Keywords Indicating Four Frames of the SCB.
Problem Definition
In Chinese news texts, the predominant lexical choice of jam defines the incident as a temporary traffic disruption, emphasizing its resolvability and transient nature. Conversely, American media consistently employs the term event, defining the situation as an unexpected occurrence with broader implications.
In CMC, the keyword jam (39 occurrences) demonstrates significant collocational patterns, most frequently co-occurring with canal (35.8%, n = 14) and traffic (23%, n = 9), indicating that the Chinese media strategically leverages the pre-existing semantic priming of jam in traffic-related contexts. This lexical choice effectively defines the unprecedented blockage as a routine transportation issue, thereby normalizing the event’s significance. Nevertheless, the severity of this traffic jam is revealed through its co-selections with phrases such as remains blocked, exacerbate, and a shadow of uncertainty, suggesting an underlying tension between the framing strategy and the event’s actual impact (see Figure 1). The sample extract 1 was chosen as follows.
In Extract 1, the Chinese media framed the SCB as both a traffic jam and a critical lesson. Although the vessel’s refloating initially brought widespread relief, it was soon overshadowed by concerns about the world’s, especially Europe’s, overreliance on this busiest trading waterway for goods from China and Asia.
Sample concordances of jam in CMC.
Whereas, the American news tends to define the blockage as an unexpected event. In AMC, frequent collocates of the keyword event (19 occurrences) include blockage, incident, accident and so on in 53% of instances (10 out of 19), contributing to the semantic preference of defining the blockage as an accidental event. The co-selections such as low probability, had never heard of and had not happened before serve to create the semantic prosody of “unpredictable and destructive” in 58% of instances (11 out of 19, Figure 2). One extract for the American media was selected as follows.
Extract 2 shows that American media, by citing Stanton’s characterization of the SCB as a “black swan event,” underscores that the disruption was highly unusual and inherently unpredictable, reinforcing the idea that it fell far outside normal expectations for global trade.
Sample concordances of event.
To conclude, Chinese news outlets framed the incident as a manageable traffic disruption, whereas American media consistently represented it as an unpredictable event. This lexical divergence reflects deeper ideological orientations, with the former emphasizing containment and control, while the latter highlight unpredictability and systemic vulnerability.
Causal Interpretation
The analysis of weather-related keywords reveals both convergence and divergence in causal interpretation. The keywords dust and visibility in each media suggest a shared recognition of weather conditions as contributing factors. This partial lexical overlap might superficially indicate a consensus on weather-related causation.
The Chinese news frames dust as the cause of the canal blockage, while the American news attributes the black-swan event to visibility issues. In CMC, the keyword dust (11 occurrences) consistently collocates with storm, winds, and wind in 100% of instances (11 out of 11, see Figure 3), establishing a clear semantic preference for poor weather conditions. This lexical pattern constructs a cause-and-effect narrative in which the cause of dust storm is highlighted as primary factor leading to the container ship’s stranding.
Sample concordances of dust.
In AMC, visibility occurs 15 times (Figure 4) and its frequent lexical collocates at N − 1 are low (47%, n = 7), poor (33%, n = 5), reduced (13%, n = 2), bad (20%, n = 3). In contrast to the focus on weather conditions as the main cause, American media emphasizes the adverse effect of poor visibility, indicating an outcome-oriented description that leads to the resulting blockage.
Sample concordances of visibility.
As such, it suggests that both Chinese and American media predominantly employ a weather-related frame when explaining the cause of the blockage. This shared framing strategy persists despite the unresolved question of potential human error or technical malfunction contributing to the incident. The apparent consensus in assigning poor weather as the primary cause may indicate an alignment between the two media systems. This framing simplifies a complex chain of events and helps sustain public confidence in maritime transport. Yet this seemingly shared interpretation obscures deeper divergences in how each media outlet contextualizes and expands upon the implications of sandstorms in their respective narratives.
Consequential Impact
While both Chinese and American media extensively address the economic impacts of the blockage, they differ fundamentally in their assessment of the severity and nature of these consequences. A collocational examination of the keyword Chinese in CMC found that multiple Chinese parties and businesses are likely to be affected by the blockage. Frequent collocates of Chinese (39 occurrences) include exporters (13%, n = 5), firms (15%, n = 6), ships (8%, n = 3), companies (10%, n = 4), vessels (8%, n = 3), exports (8%, n = 3), goods (8%, n = 3) and traders (10%, n = 4), providing evidence that large amounts of Chinese ships associated with Chinese companies pass through the Suez Canal, as the following extract indicates.
The Chinese media’s framing of the economic consequences of the blockage reveals a strategic pattern in its treatment of loss, reflected in keywords such as dollars, delivery, and grain. Notably, Chinese media tend to quantify economic impacts by documenting repercussions for global trade as a whole, as demonstrated in the following extract.
Particularly detailed are accounts of Egypt’s substantial revenue losses, the significant escalation in shipping costs affecting Germany-Asia trade routes, and the volatile price movements in West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures. This multi-level quantitative framing serves to emphasize the extensive reach of the blockage’s economic impact while maintaining a global perspective that transcends national boundaries. Although evidenced in extract 3, acknowledging China’s substantial shipping volumes, the reporting conspicuously avoids direct quantification of domestic losses. This selective framing strategy effectively redirects attention toward the broader vulnerabilities of global trade networks, thereby positioning China as an observer of, rather than a participant in the economic repercussions of the blockage.
The keyword grain reveals significant implications for China’s food security. While acknowledging potential disruptions to grain imports, Chinese media strategically downplay concerns about Suez Canal-dependent grain trade by emphasizing alternative supply channels, particularly through the Belt and Road Initiative freight train network. This framing strategy is exemplified in the following extract 5, which illustrates how the Chinese media constructs a narrative of resilience and self-sufficiency.
In addition, the Chinese media frames the SCB as an opportunity to highlight the advantages of the China-Europe freight train service. This positive consequence narrative emphasizes the reliability and efficiency of the Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure, particularly during global shipping disruptions. By showcasing the freight train as a viable alternative, the Chinese media not only underscores China’s logistical resilience but also positions the country as a stabilizing force in international trade, as the following extract indicates.
In conclusion, Chinese media framing of the SCB’s consequential impacts reveals a nuanced narrative strategy. While acknowledging China’s substantial dependence on maritime trade networks, media coverage strategically minimizes references to specific losses suffered by Chinese exporters and enterprises, instead emphasizing the broader ramifications for global trade dynamics. This framing approach effectively shifts the narrative focus from national economic impacts to worldwide consequences. Moreover, the reporting emphasizes transportation security of freight train as a critical component of China’s food import strategy. Ultimately, Chinese media reframes the crisis as an opportunity to pursue dual objectives: highlighting the inherent risks of over-reliance on the Suez Canal for international trade and promoting the China-Europe freight train service as a reliable alternative, thereby advancing the strategic aims of the Belt and Road Initiative. This framing not only mitigates the perceived impact of the blockage on China’s economy but also positions the country as a proactive architect of global trade resilience.
Contrast to Chinese news coverage, American media consistently amplify the comprehensive and far-reaching consequences of the SCB for global supply chains. Keyword shortage(s) has 62 occurrences in AMC and collocates most frequently with supply (27%, n = 17), container(s) (26%, n = 16), shipping (18%, n = 11), delays (19%, n = 12), semiconductors (18%, n = 11), toilet paper (30%, n = 19), coffee (16%, n = 10), and everything (15%, n = 9). This collocational profile reveals a narrative of undersupply across diverse sectors of the American economy, ranging from high-tech industries to everyday consumer goods. As extract 7 illustrates, this framing strategy constructs a vivid picture of widespread economic disruption by emphasizing both the scale and specificity of supply chain vulnerabilities in the United States.
The American media further extend their framing of the SCB’s consequences to include significant disruptions to manufacturing inventories. Through collocational analysis of the keywords manufacturing, auto, and parts, a clear narrative emerges in which delayed shipments of critical components lead to production halts. These include European-made auto parts, time-sensitive semiconductors, and petroleum-based materials, which collectively stalled automobile assembly lines and disrupted electronic manufacturing processes. It is exemplified in extract 8, which indicates the cascading effects of the blockage on industrial production.
Furthermore, the keyword consumer(s) in American media reveals a crucial dimension of the multifaceted consequences of domestic supply shortage. With 67 occurrences, its most frequent collocates include demand (21%, n = 14), goods (19%, n = 13), product(s) (12%, n = 8), and prices (9%, n = 6). Notably, the collocational patterns of consumer/demand and consumer/prices consistently co-select with intensifiers such as picked up, higher, insatiable, and rising in 85% of instances (17 out of 20), demonstrating an economic predicament characterized by constrained supply and escalating demand. This inflationary pressure ultimately cascades down to end consumers, who bear the brunt of increased costs for final products, as exemplified in the extract 9.
In conclusion, American media framing of consequential impacts adopts a markedly negative tone, meticulously detailing the strains on consumer goods availability, manufacturing operations, and supply chain logistics. Through comprehensive reporting of these interconnected challenges, American news outlets construct a narrative of widespread and enduring economic disruption. Consequently, American media portrays the SCB as a significant economic disruptor with far-reaching and persistent consequences, reflecting a deep concern over systemic vulnerabilities in global trade networks.
Proposed Solutions
Regarding proposed solutions, Chinese news coverage prioritizes long-term, systemic solutions aimed at preventing future occurrences of similar maritime traffic disruptions. This forward-looking approach contrasts sharply with American media’s emphasis on immediate short-term remedies aimed at addressing the specific accidental event.
In Chinese media coverage, phraseological analysis of keywords such as train(s), road, belt, silk, med, land, land-based and NSR reveals a strategic framing of alternative trade routes. These lexical choices consistently portray the Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure as a resilient, long-term alternative to vulnerable maritime trade routes. The analysis identifies three primary alternatives being foregrounded: the China-Europe freight trains, constituting the Eurasian Land Bridge; the Northern Sea Route (NSR), referred to as the Polar Silk Road; and the Red-Med Corridor, officially termed the Red Sea-Mediterranean Economic Corridor. This tripartite framing underscores China’s investment in diversified trade networks but also positions the country as a proactive architect of global trade resilience beyond traditional maritime routes.
The keyword train(s) (107 occurrences) demonstrates significant collocational patterns, most frequently co-occurring with Europe (45%, n = 48), freight (35%, n = 37), China (37%, n = 40), and cargo (26%, n = 28). Through these collocates, a narrative framework emerges that positions the China-Europe freight train as a strategic solution to major maritime disruptions. Chinese media coverage emphasizes the service’s competitive advantages by highlighting its punctuality, efficiency, and growing popularity. This positive framing is achieved by explicitly comparing the service to traditional sea transport, as illustrated in extracts 10, 11 and 12.
Furthermore, Chinese media also underscores the necessity of diversified trade routes, drawing attention to the Northern Sea Route (NSR)—China’s Arctic shipping lane that offers strategic advantages in reducing dependence on US-dominated Middle Eastern routes (Alterman, 2019). This narrative is exemplified in the following extract.
In contrast to China’s future-oriented solutions to the SCB, American news coverage focuses on immediate, practical measures to resolve the crisis. The narrative highlights how “hard labour, new technology, and ultimately the moon” combined to end the blockage. Phraseological analysis of the keyword worked (13 occurrences) reveals frequent collocations with salvage operations (n = 4, 30.8%) and dredgers (n = 4, 30.8%). Similarly, the keyword worker(s) (24 occurrences) predominantly collocates with sand (n = 6, 25%), meters (n = 4, 16.7%), cubic (n = 4, 16.7%) and dredged (n = 4, 12.5%). Concordance analysis of these keywords highlights the extensive international efforts involved, including the deployment of expert salvors from the Netherlands and Japan, a fleet of tugboats and dredgers, and hundreds of workers. Despite this global collaboration, American media continued to express concern about the backlog, noting that even the US Navy contributed dredging experts to assist. Ultimately, the successful refloating of the Ever Given was framed as a combination of human ingenuity and natural forces, with particular emphasis on the critical role of a full moon and high tides in the operation’s success, as illustrated in the following extract.
While long-term solution-related keywords are notably absent in American news coverage, NBC News stands out by proposing strategic measures to prevent future Suez Canal blockages. This notable article critiques the US government’s lack of foresight in safeguarding economic interests, framing it as a failure to invest in global infrastructure. It further contrasts American inaction with the proactive strategies of geopolitical rivals, as indicated in the following extract.
Nevertheless, American media also explicitly dismiss China’s Asia-Europe freight train initiative. This categorical rejection of viable overland alternatives not only overlooks the operational success of China’s freight train network but also signals a broader reluctance to acknowledge China’s growing influence in reshaping global trade logistics, as illustrated in the following extract.
In conclusion, the Chinese media framing of proposed solutions reflects a distinct political agenda, strategically emphasizing the Belt and Road Initiative while highlighting the superior performance of China-Europe freight trains. This approach effectively transforms the crisis into an opportunity for geopolitical messaging and infrastructure promotion. In contrast, American media constructs a solution narrative that perpetuates a sense of crisis, portraying the event as an ongoing challenge rather than an opportunity for innovation. This negative framing extends to criticism of the US’s perceived lack of strategic vision in developing alternative trade routes, thereby reinforcing an image of reactive rather than proactive leadership in global trade infrastructure.
Discussion and Conclusions
After conducting a corpus-driven comparative keyword analysis, it can be concluded that both media outlets primarily framed the SCB as a weather-related incident. The main difference is that Chinese media framed the unprecedented event as a manageable traffic disruption, minimized coverage of negative consequences, and promoted the Belt and Road Initiative trade routes as a viable long-term solution. In contrast, American media framed the blockage as an unpredictable and exceptional event, emphasizing both the scale of economic losses and the need for immediate remedial action. This dichotomy in media framing reflected not only different approaches but also social-political orientations in how each media system conceptualized and responded to the SCB. As Flowerdew and Jones (2016) suggested, understanding media discourse within its socio-political contexts enables researchers to better understand why particular language patterns emerge or stand out in specific discourses.
As Chinese media is state-owned, media framing of the SCB represented the official stance of the Chinese government. Since 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative has become a strategy to consolidate China’s place as a pivotal actor in regional political-economy (Beeson and Li, 2016). As a hallmark of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe freight train has become a vital bridge for trade and connectivity between China and Europe. When the blockage occurs in Suez Canal, official Chinese media routinely use the occasion to publicize and elevate the China-Europe rail link. Thus, the initiative was framed as a reliable and efficient alternative to traditional maritime trade routes. Chinese media consequently promoted the freight train network as a solution to the SCB, a strategy that amplified the Belt and Road Initiative’s geopolitical significance and economic attractiveness on the international stage. According to Rimmer (2018) and Winter (2020), the Belt and Road Initiative has been analysed in terms of its implications for geopolitical, geoeconomic and geocultural power.
As the principal beneficiary of globalization, China has risen to become a global manufacturing superpower, capitalizing on its economic transformation to command international supply chains and industrial production. Central to this ascendancy is the Belt and Road Initiative, which exemplified China’s ambition to advance its strategic priorities and values while positioning itself as a viable alternative within the global supply chain network. The SCB was recast as an opportunity to promote political narratives aligned with China’s efforts to expand its international influence.
American media’s amplified framing of the SCB consequences reflected internal structural vulnerabilities in American economy under globalization. The nation’s dependence on international markets for goods, intensified by chronic domestic labor shortages, has generated pronounced vulnerabilities within its supply chains (Cohu, 2022). Despite initiating a trade war with China, the US faced substantial challenges in reshoring manufacturing capabilities, as over 70% of its workforce remained concentrated in the service sector (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). This internal economic structure proved particularly precarious during the Covid-19 pandemic, when widespread worker infections disrupted production as global supply chains were faltering (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022).
Economic disruptions in the US primarily arose from demand-side instability, which was itself a direct consequence of economic globalization. As a demand-side economy, America is heavily reliant on supply-side nations, particularly China, for its industrial and consumer needs. American media’s emphasis on negative impacts across sectors ranging from high-tech industries to everyday consumer goods exposed the vulnerabilities of the global trade flows. The Suez Canal’s importance has grown in tandem with globalization, cementing the links between the east and the west (Meyer, 2021). Rapid transport of goods facilitates the benefits of globalization for consumers and business worldwide. Nevertheless, the SCB disrupted this critical flow, underscoring the fragility of global supply chains and causing widespread economic repercussions. As such, the American media emphasized the blockage’s adverse effects, which it attributed to vulnerabilities stemming from heavy reliance on international trade networks.
The China-US trade war since 2018 has been widely regarded as a landmark event in the process of deglobalization (Garcia-Herrero, 2019). It has significantly distorted established global trade patterns. As a result, economic globalization has been increasingly redirected toward deglobalizing trends. Bergeijk (2024) maintained that early 21st-century trade developments have been profoundly reshaped by a series of geopolitical and economic shocks. The SCB stands out for its direct and severe disruption of global supply chains, alongside the financial crisis, Covid-19 lockdowns, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. These events have sparked debate over whether globalization is in decline or merely undergoing transformation. The range of proposed scenarios from prolonged deglobalization to temporary setbacks highlight the uncertainty and complexity of contemporary global economic trends. Globalization appears increasingly poised to yield to the dual forces of deglobalization and escalating China-US rivalry, trends that are reshaping the global economic and political order (Witt, 2019). To this extend, deglobalization accelerates under the strain of the China-US trade war and successive global crises.
Media framing of the SCB demonstrated China’s strategic promotion for an alternative framework for trade and connectivity to sustain its influence over economic globalization. This contrasted sharply with the US, whose vulnerability stemmed from deep reliance on global supply chains. Nevertheless, it is crucial to recognize that media framing fundamentally examines narrative frameworks constructed through selective representations of reality, tailored to serve specific economic, social, political, and ideological agendas. While often presented as objective accounts, media narratives are inherently interpretive constructs that reflect particular perspectives and priorities rather than offering an unmediated reflection of reality. This distinction underscores the importance of viewing media framing as a strategic discursive formation rather than a transparent window into events or issues.
The present study employs a corpus-driven approach to statistically trace and analyse media frames, revealing distinct patterns in which Chinese media emphasize strategic responses, whereas American media focus on economic disruptions associated with the SCB. The methodological synergy between these approaches offers a reliable model for framing analysis, particularly through corpus-driven keyword comparative analysis. This approach not only deepened our understanding of the SCB’s impact beyond economic dimensions but also offered valuable insights into how social-political orientations are embedded in media discourse and influence public perception.
Despite its contributions, this study is limited by the scope of its data. Our corpus primarily comprises official and prominent news outlets, yet the media landscapes in both China and the United States are increasingly defined by social media. Consequently, our findings may not extend to short-form video or informal digital discourse, where framing strategies often depart from formal editorial conventions. Future research should test the robustness of our linguistic and categorical frameworks across more diverse media formats. While official channels framed the SCB through the lens of the Belt and Road Initiative and systemic vulnerability, social media may harbor more visceral, emotional, or even subversive counter-narratives.
Footnotes
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The work described in this paper was substantially supported by Jinan University Shenzhen Campus Funding Program (No: JNSZQH2303).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data supporting the reported results are available on request.