Moral stance taking as a device of covert aggression in Chinese political language use

Lexical Verb(s) of Hedging Used by The White House Secretary’s Responses in Press Briefing

“…It is a positive attitude in conducting press briefings to outline performance in the future, the policies to be taken, and expectations regarding the development of something going forward. Besides, In addition, the secretary's moral attitude in giving arguments with several sentences that use the pronoun (we) as a form of expression for the spokesperson not to express his point of view directly (Zhou, 2020). Furthermore, in a press conference, as shown in this study, the spokesperson does not have to raise his voice or be agitated and openly confront journalists.…”

Exploring the Influence of the Chinese Spokesperson’s Speech: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Foreign Ministry’s Press Conference

“…Chinese people consider advice as a more polite way of expressing an idea than direct ordering, especially when the proposal is intended to benefit another party [33]. This occupation with moral stance is also discussed by Zhou, who points out that spokespersons can express 'dismissive and authoritative' attitudes by positioning themselves on the moral high ground [34].…”

“…Gu also argues that statements and actions can also affect the image shaped by press conferences [32]. This idea is expanded into analyses of different expression strategies by scholars like Liu and Shi, Zhou, and Wu [17][18][33][34][35].…”

“…Wu concludes that direct criticisms and personal attacks are aimed at excluding opponents from the debate from the outset by highlighting their irresponsibility [17]. Wu and Zhou both agree that direct criticism is a strategy employed to silence opponents and neutralise their arguments [17,34].…”