Number of times “China” or “Chinese” was mentioned in U.S. presidents’ State of Union address

The State of Union address is an annual address presented before a joint session of Congress and held in the House of Representatives chamber at the U.S. Capitol. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his/her legislative agenda and national priorities to Congress.

SpeechWars is an online program that allows users to type in a word and see how often presidents have used it in over 200 State of the Union addresses.  So I got curious how many times presidents have mentioned the word “China” or “Chinese” in their State of Union address.  The result was somewhat surprising.

I would suspect that with China’s opening up since the late 1970s, the mention of China or Chinese in U.S. presidents’ State of Union addresses would become more frequent.  However, according to SpeechWars data, that was not the case.  William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft, three presidents during the beginning of the twentieth century mentioned China the most.  This increased interest in China is normal during those times because, if we remember our history lessons, the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century was a turbulent time period for China.  The Qing Dynasty was plagued by rebellions, first by the Taiping Rebellion, then the Boxer Rebellion, and then the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 which finally overthrown the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China.

The first U.S. president who mentioned China was President John Quincy Adams and the last U.S. president who mentioned China is, of course, President Obama.  Different from previous presidents, Obama didn’t mention China because of commerce or human rights, Obama praised China as the country that has “launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient.”  Indeed, times “they are a-changin’.”