Testing Foreign Policy Apologia

This project analyzes the statements made by Chinese and American government officials with regard to the Hainan Incident, in which a U.S. EP-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet. This thesis examines the rhetorical exchanges between the two nations during the diplomatic negotiations that resulted from the crash through the generic lenses of foreign policy crisis rhetoric and apologetic rhetoric. Drawing from previous scholarship on crisis rhetoric, apologia, and intercultural diplomatic communication, this analysis attempts to illuminate the differences between Chinese and U.S. responses to crisis situations, how each side either succeeded and/or failed in properly adapting their rhetorical strategies to audiences of a different cultural background, and how a rhetorical perspective of this event modifies what scholars know about the form and function of crisis rhetoric and apologia.