This study examines 92 news stories on the South China Sea conflicts from the English main-streamed newspapers of East Asian countries. A content analysis reveals that the dominant agendas consist of such issues as Chinses government’s actions and reactions on the South China Sea row，the stances from the claimants of East Asian countries，as well as discussions on effective measures and steps. The discourses and frames behind the coverages focusing on the topics of Chinese constructions on the South China sea rocks，Sino-US relationship，China’s new Silk Road strategy，present a suspicious and even opposite attitude. Besides，compared with the relative coverages in 2013 from the East Asian leading English newspaper，the media representation of Chinese national image is more negative. The study holds that three efforts can be taken to improve China’s national image. Firstly，Chinese government should engage in diplomatic measures to strengthen mutual political trust and prompt national identities；secondly，expand cultural and civil communications with East Asian countries，in order to minimize mutual political culture gaps and to construct positive relationship expectation；thirdly，react calmly to domestic nationalism in order to prevent emotional public opinions from influencing negatively on sensible diplomatic decision-making.