"New York Times" and the Chinese crisis of 1931

The article is devoted to the problem of formation of approaches and assessments of the Chinese crisis of 1931 in the US press; it is based on the materials of both Democratic and Republican press of the USA. The materials of the American press of 1931 dedicated to the search for the most efficient optimal strategy of building relations with China and Japan demonstrate a steady interest of American mass media towards negative and positive experience of Asian policy. In the course of a difficult search of an optimal view on crisis, several polar points of view were formulated in the American press. A study of daily newspapers and analytical magazines in the United States shows that in the fall of 1931 two approaches to the «Chinese incident» were formed: isolationist and internationalist. In the fall of 1931, the US periodicals did not yet have the idea of “saving China”, which became popular during the second Sino-Japanese war. The journalists and editors viewed a tacit and indirect support for the Japanese claims as only significant model for solving the «China problem». Thus, the study of the positions of the major American press and the most prominent journalists is important for understanding how the USA, after the Chinese crisis, gradually realized its place in the new system of international relations. In addition, the press shows how the United States planned to develop interaction with the warring states in the Pacific Ocean.