In 2018, the United States started to put tariffs on some products coming from China under the justification that unfair trade practices have long-harmed American businesses and workers. As a response, China began imposing taxes on American goods. Despite the number of talks and statements issued by the US and Chinese administration, the tensions on trade relations only seem to be further exacerbated under the Biden administration. The primary goals of this research are to give an overview of the dominant themes that emerge in the political discourse of the US and Chinese administrations concerning the trade war and examine the salient national interests that are constructed in their narratives using the emerging methodology of Semantic Network Analysis which is suitable for large textual data. The analyzed data are textual articles posted by the US and Chinese administrations on their respective state websites from the period of 2017 - 2023. By approaching discourse as a form of social practice, this thesis hopes to give insights on the key themes and priorities of state actors in the trade war.