Nationalism in discursive legitimation: An analysis of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ discourse on digital journalism

Bamboo diplomacy, the latest conceptualization in Vietnamese foreign policy, has recently captured widespread media coverage. This study investigates the discursive legitimation strategies employed by the Vietnamese Communist Party to justify the adoption of the aforementioned policy. In addition, the study focuses on the integration of nationalism in the legitimation process of bamboo diplomacy discourse in the context of digital media. Drawing upon constructivism, banal nationalism, and Van Leeuwen’s model of legitimation in discourse and communication, the study utilizes CDA and DHA to analyze 66 articles on six official Vietnamese online news outlets. The findings revealed that nationalism-based legitimacy is a key underpinning of three discursive strategies of the four implemented in the VCP’s bamboo diplomacy discourse. Accordingly, three main patterns of nationhood reproduction were identified: (i) the myth of national history, (ii) the authority of national traditions, and (iii) the moralization of bamboo iconography.