How ready is China for a China-style world order? China's state media discourse under construction

Xiaoling Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

What exactly is the China-style world order that Chinese officials and intellectual elites have recently been talking about, and how ready is China for it? An examination and analysis of discourses on 'Africa Live' on CCTV Africa, the first overseas news center of China Central Television (CCTV), yields some highly noticeable features and significant themes, confirming that although China has shifted from a low-profile approach to a more assertive one, in an attempt to change the global order, its verbal challenge and sometimes harsh criticism of the American-led international system is accompanied by an obvious absence of a clear vision of what the new world order should be like. This lack of a clear vision may be due to the fact that the Chinese discourse on world order is still a work in progress, constrained by internal practices, and Africa is its testing ground for the construction of a discourse that China envisages as an alternative.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)79-101
Number of pages23
JournalEcquid Novi
Volume34
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Sino-African relations
  • international community
  • new world order
  • soft power
  • state media discourse
  • testing ground

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