China is Speaking, Who is Listening? The BRI, State Media, and Discourse Power: A Case Study

In 2013, the year that marked the debut of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) onto the global stage, Xi Jinping urged the enhancement of international discourse power and communication capabilities among the methods to increase China’s soft power. The mediatic echo generated around the organization of the first (2017) and second (2019) Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is a case in point. Taking a selection of related news headlines disseminated by Chinese state-subordinated media outlet Xinhua News Agency for Chinese and foreign audiences as a case study, this paper analyses the official narrative of the BRI. By identifying similarities and differences between representations of the BRI in Chinese and English discourses, also taking into account Xinhua’s identity, it aims to identify traits of Beijing’s international relations discourse and evaluate its efficiency in articulating China’s own worldview.