The construction of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” in China Daily

“One country, two systems” (OCTS) is the constitutional principle that established Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy after the city’s handover from Britain to China in 1997. This study conducts the first systemic, diachronic analysis of the discursive construction of OCTS in Chinese news media, focusing on Beijing’s mouthpiece and public diplomacy newspaper, China Daily. After reviewing the tripartite representation of the principle in the literature, we identify a refocus from the economic to the legal-political aspect of OCTS and an increasing emphasis on the socio-cultural dimension of OCTS in China Daily’s news discourses from 1997 to 2020. These patterns indicated OCTS’s changing status from a ‘legitimating ideology’ to a political principle struggling to be ‘legitimate’ in Beijing’s political discourses. Despite disputes about OCTS, we anticipate that Beijing and Hong Kong’s opposition will continue to abide by this principle in their future interactions.