Hong Kong's handover from British colonial rule to Chinese control in 1997 marked a significant shift in its political landscape. The subsequent enactment of the National Security Law (NSL) in 2020, following the 2019 anti-government protests, further altered Hong Kong's governance and political psychology. The NSL, officially intended to promote a safe society and prevent acts endangering national security, has been met with both support and fierce criticism. Supporters view it as a necessary measure to restore stability and prosperity, while critics argue it undermines Hong Kong's autonomy and democratic values. This paper aims to analyze the media representations of the NSL in both China's and Anglo-American English-language press, providing a comparative perspective on how this legislation is framed and understood in different geopolitical contexts. The study uses rigorous linguistic evidence from news reports to understand the changing political dynamics in Hong Kong and the broader geopolitical tensions between China and the West.

Existing literature on the NSL is largely divided into two streams. One focuses on the law's controversial aspects and its perceived threat to Hong Kong's "One Country, Two Systems" principle, including concerns about erosion of legislative autonomy, judicial independence, and democratic processes. The other stream, primarily from Chinese scholars, emphasizes the law's positive impacts on stability, security, and the protection of residents' rights. While these studies highlight socio-political and legal impacts, they lack a detailed linguistic analysis of how the NSL is represented in media discourse. Previous studies on contrastive media analysis of the NSL have focused on specific engagement resources, this study differs by using a corpus-driven phraseological analysis, providing a deeper understanding of the discursive strategies employed by different media outlets.

This study employs a corpus-driven discourse analysis approach using two corpora: the China Daily corpus (CD) and the Anglo-American media corpus (AA). CD comprises news reports from China Daily, representing the Chinese government's perspective, while AA includes reports from The New York Times and The Guardian, reflecting Anglo-American viewpoints. Data was collected from May 22, 2020, to July 6, 2020. Wmatrix and ConcGram 1.0 were used for quantitative and phraseological analysis. Key semantic categories were identified using keyness calculations and log-likelihood values, ensuring statistical significance. Keywords were then grouped into four framing functions: politics and law, protests and crime, action and future, and evaluation. Sinclair's five categories of co-selection (core, collocation, colligation, semantic preference, semantic prosody) were applied to analyze the phraseological profiles of keywords and concgrams within each corpus. The reference corpus used was the News on the Web (NOW) corpus. The analysis focused on comparing the frequency, collocations, and semantic prosody of keywords and concgrams related to the NSL across the two corpora to understand the different ways the law was framed and presented.

The analysis revealed significant differences in the framing of the NSL between the Chinese and Anglo-American press across four identified framing functions: **Politics and Law:** The Chinese press (CD) portrayed the NSL as a necessary and beneficial law designed to maintain stability and address legal loopholes, emphasizing its political significance and legal legitimacy. Frequent collocations included words like "protect," "peace," and "necessary." In contrast, the Anglo-American press (AA) framed the NSL as controversial and problematic, using words like "sweeping," "draconian," and "controversial." The frequent use of phrases like "China's push" and "Beijing's move" emphasized China's strategic actions in Hong Kong and its potential breach of international commitments. Both corpora used the keyword "government," but with differing connotations; CD stressed joint effort between mainland and Hong Kong governments, while AA highlighted the imposition of the NSL solely by Beijing. **Protests and Crime:** CD highlighted the violence and illegality of the 2019 protests to justify the NSL, focusing on negative terms like "violent" and "unrest." AA, conversely, emphasized the suppression of protests and the crackdown on dissent under the NSL, representing protesters as pro-democracy activists exercising their rights, even if sometimes radical. Both corpora mentioned "extradition" as a catalyst for the protests but framed it differently; CD saw it as highlighting administrative flaws, while AA viewed it as a precursor to the harsher NSL. **Action and Future:** CD presented a positive outlook for Hong Kong's future under the NSL, emphasizing stability, prosperity, and the safeguarding of national security. AA, however, portrayed a more negative future, highlighting potential risks to Hong Kong's freedoms and autonomy. The keyword "sanctions" was used by both but with contrasting interpretations. CD viewed sanctions as evidence of double standards, while AA highlighted them as a consequence of the NSL's impact. **Evaluation:** CD focused on positive quotations from Hong Kong and mainland officials to support the NSL, creating a positive semantic prosody. AA, in contrast, highlighted criticism and concerns from pro-democracy activists, international figures like Mike Pompeo, and international organizations, creating a negative semantic prosody. While both used the concgram "Hong Kong/said," the implied meanings differed significantly. Overall, the study revealed a clear pattern of positive self-presentation in the Chinese media and negative-other presentation in the Anglo-American media.

The contrasting media representations reflect deeply entrenched ideologies and geopolitical tensions between China and the West. The Chinese government's control over its media contributes to the overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the NSL. Conversely, the Anglo-American media's negative framing aligns with existing anti-China sentiments. Hong Kong's position in the intensifying geopolitical rivalry between China and the West is central to understanding these differing perspectives. The NSL is viewed by China as a strategic move to consolidate its control over Hong Kong, while the West sees it as a threat to Hong Kong's autonomy and international norms. This study highlights the impact of the NSL on the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, with differing interpretations of its effects on Hong Kong's legal system and democratic processes. The contrasting perspectives on the NSL also reflect broader China-US ideological and geopolitical tensions. The NSL is seen by the US as a challenge to the existing global order and a further escalation of long-term confrontation between the two nations.

This corpus-driven study revealed significant differences in the framing of the Hong Kong National Security Law between Chinese and Anglo-American media. The findings highlight the role of entrenched ideologies and geopolitical tensions in shaping media narratives. The study’s methodology offers a valuable tool for analyzing media representations of complex social and political issues. Future research could explore the long-term impacts of the NSL on Hong Kong’s society and political landscape, further investigating the evolution of media narratives surrounding the law.

The study's scope is limited to a specific time period and a selection of news outlets. While the chosen sources are highly influential, they may not fully represent the diversity of viewpoints on the NSL. Furthermore, the analysis focuses on linguistic features and may not fully capture the complexities of the socio-political context. Future studies could benefit from expanding the corpus to include a broader range of media sources and employing qualitative methods to supplement the quantitative analysis.