A discourse-historical analysis of China’s discursive construction of cybersecurity

China’s official discourse on cybersecurity has undergone significant evolution in response to evolving governance challenges. This study examines how cybersecurity is discursively constructed in China through a longitudinal analysis of authoritative political speeches delivered between 2013 and 2025. These texts are treated here as a systematic corpus that provides access to the recontextualization of security threats, policy rationales, and normative frameworks over time. Integrating Ruth Wodak’s discourse-historical approach (DHA) with corpus-based methods, the analysis proceeds along three dimensions: discourse themes, discursive strategies, and socio-historical context. Findings indicate a stage-based evolution, shifting from confrontational security defense to institutionalized governance, and then to cooperation and coordinated development. Thematic priorities include macro-level governance, public opinion guidance, techno-economic development, and international cooperation. Discursively, a recurrent argumentative pattern of “risk-necessity- responsibility” emerges, serving as a key legitimizing device.