Differentiated yet common sentiments: UK news coverage on the Biden–Xi summit meeting

Britain’s policy on China fluctuated from positive engagement to China scepticism between 2015 and 2023, influenced by geopolitical and domestic politics and economic concerns. British media coverage of US–China interactions and rivalry therefore warrants scrutiny. The US–China summit meeting of November 2023 offered such an opportunity. This article uses a critical discourse analysis approach to analyse UK coverage of Xi Jinping’s US visit. Portrayals of the summit are examined in terms of differing tones and stances adopted by The Guardian, the BBC, and the Daily Mail news outlets. It is found that while the Daily Mail’s tone toward the summit meeting was overwhelmingly negative, that of The Guardian was moderately positive and the BBC’s tone was mostly neutral. Narratives reveal that Britain positioned itself between the two rivals through an inclusion of diverse, elite perspectives and that news framing of China cohered with Anglo–American ideological norms and special relations.