To analyze the reports by US newspapers on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to reveal its public understanding of TCM.Methods:A specialized corpus was built and concordance and cluster analyses were conducted under the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) .Results: 1) Steady increase was observed in the number of reports on TCM since 2000; 2) Similar words such as “integrating” were frequently seen in describing the relationship between TCM and conventional medicine; 3) Different words were chosen to report acupuncture and Chinese herbs,the former depicted as effective and relatively safe while the latter as possibly harmful,contaminated or even dangerous.Conclusion:The findings suggest American’s public interest in TCM and TCM’s integration into conventional medicine.However,media reports also voice the public concern about the safety of Chinese herbal medicine.Thus more media reports on the safety and efficacy of TCM are necessary for the promotion of TCM.