{"title":"Diversionary Words: Trump, China and the COVID-19 Pandemic.","authors":"Ilai Z Saltzman","doi":"10.1007/s41111-023-00235-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Diversionary War Theory (DWT) posits that leaders engulfed in a domestic crisis will attempt to divert the attention of citizens by initiating an armed conflict against an external actor. War, under this logic, is a mechanism designed to distract, boost the leader's popularity, or relegate the responsibility for the crisis to an outside scapegoat. In this article, I apply a discursive variation of DWT to account for and describe the shift in Donald Trump's approach to China during the COVID-19 crisis. This analysis concludes the domestic political and economic difficulties Trump was grappling with during the 2020 presidential election motivated him to blame the Chinese government for the detrimental effects the pandemic had on the United States. Trump's strategic use of novel social media platforms was instrumental in his campaign to name, shame, and scapegoat China to divert attention from the domestic crisis as well as to boost his popularity.</p>","PeriodicalId":44455,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Political Science Review","volume":"6 1","pages":"1-25"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9924206/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Chinese Political Science Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-023-00235-x","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Diversionary War Theory (DWT) posits that leaders engulfed in a domestic crisis will attempt to divert the attention of citizens by initiating an armed conflict against an external actor. War, under this logic, is a mechanism designed to distract, boost the leader's popularity, or relegate the responsibility for the crisis to an outside scapegoat. In this article, I apply a discursive variation of DWT to account for and describe the shift in Donald Trump's approach to China during the COVID-19 crisis. This analysis concludes the domestic political and economic difficulties Trump was grappling with during the 2020 presidential election motivated him to blame the Chinese government for the detrimental effects the pandemic had on the United States. Trump's strategic use of novel social media platforms was instrumental in his campaign to name, shame, and scapegoat China to divert attention from the domestic crisis as well as to boost his popularity.
期刊介绍：
This journal aims to publish original and cutting-edge research in all areas of political science, such as political theory, comparative politics, international relations, public administration, public policy, methodology, and Chinese politics and government. In the meantime it also provides a major and visible platform for the intellectual dialogue between Chinese and international scholars, and disseminate scholarship that can shed light on the ever changing field of Chinese political studies, stimulate reflective discourse as the field continues to develop both within and outside China. All research articles published in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review. In additional original research articles, Chinese Political Science Review also publishes book reviews to disseminate comprehensive reviews of emerging topics in all areas of political science.
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