From “DeepSeek Moment” to “Sputnik AI Moment”: Appraising the discursive construction of technological legitimacy in Sino-American Media

Integrating Appraisal Theory with Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines how mainstream Chinese and U.S. media construct distinct evaluative stances towards DeepSeek AI. Drawing on a corpus of 40 reports, the research scrutinizes three primary types of targets (product/technology, organization/actor, and impact/consequence) following the paradigm of statistical description, semantic interpretation, and critical explanation. Findings indicate divergent evaluative patterns: Chinese outlets explicitly legitimize DeepSeek’s rise through positive Valuation and Capacity resources, combining moral evaluation with rationalization to cast it as a “DeepSeek Moment”. The U.S. media, despite a journalistically balanced tendency, implicitly lean toward de-legitimation through negative Propriety and Veracity (moral evaluation) and evocation of Insecurity (mythopoesis), constructing a “Sputnik AI Moment” framework. Anchored by recontextualization and intertextuality within narratives of human welfare versus zero-sum competition, this contrast highlights deeper ideological struggles for the discursive power to construe the semiotic reality and define the global technological landscape. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how technological news discourse functions as a constitutive medium in the geopolitical landscape in the digital age.