‘Becoming’ a global leader: China’s evolving official media discourse in Xi’s New Era

This paper investigates the discourses on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from China Global Television Network’s YouTube channel. As China’s key diplomatic initiative, the BRI discourses provide us rich resources to understand how China wants the international community to see it, and how it intends to lead the world. The paper finds that China has developed a much clearer vision and more consistent discourse on the world order and its role in it. However, our data produces no evidence to support the claim that China wants to take over the existing global order. Rather, China seeks legitimacy to share global leadership.


Introduction
The landscape of world power has been shifting, with the United States' superpower status rivalled by a rising China and other emerging powers like India and Brazil.It is argued that this shift is not only reshaping the current international order but has also 'significantly reshaped China's global ambition' (Zeng, 2017: 1).In other words, China has moved from Deng Xiaoping's 'keeping a low profile' to 'striving for achievement' on the global stage (Yan, 2014).Following this shift, and together with China's advocacy for a greater role in the international order, China is seen to be more willing to take advantage of its economic power to build up discursive power and to implement an increasingly assertive Chinese foreign policy.Xi Jinping's grand initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt (One Belt and One Road, hereafter OBOR) is argued to be the best demonstration of this.
A plethora of literature has developed on the question of China's global power (e.g.Jacques, 2012;Shambaugh, 2013;Shirk, 2008).Jae Ho Chung identified three positions on China: the Confident School (China's rise is irreversible), the Pessimist School (China is likely to falter) and the Not Yet/Uncertain School (too early to say; Chung, 2015).In spite of their divided views, their analyses shared one thing in common: China is a power to reckon with.However, although discussion on how China wants the world to see it regarding its status and role in the international order has been forthcoming, there has been limited specific attention given to the way in which China's BRI is portrayed by Chinese foreign-focussed (outbound) state media.We argue that this is a vital component of discussion on the future of the international order, as it has implications on how -or where -China intends to lead the world.
This paper investigates China's official media discourse in order to shed light on the way China presents itself to the international community in what China calls 'the New Era' (Xinhua, 2018).In order to achieve this, we build upon previous work (Zhang, 2013), which explored how China perceived its role in the world order towards the end of Hu Jintao's era (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012).Zhang found that scholars shared the observation that China was shifting away from the low-profile approach in its foreign policies introduced by Deng Xiaoping in the early reform period.Instead, it was becoming more assertive as its interests and capabilities grew (e.g.Callahan, 2012;Zhang, 2008).In other words, China was no longer content with 'playing the game created and defined by the world's advanced industrial economies, most notably the United States' (Steinfeld, 2010: 24), or to continue to work within the existing international order and conciliate the big powers (Yan and Sautman, 2012).The paper concluded that, based on the examination and analysis of CCTV's programme, CCTV Africa, although China advocated playing a more important role in the world order, there was a conspicuous absence of a clear vision of what the new world order should be.Most importantly, the paper argued that China's discourse on its role in the world order was still a work-inprogress.In light of those findings, our investigation conducts a new quantitative and qualitative analysis of China's narratives that underlie China Global Television Network's (CGTN) YouTube channel between 2018 and 2019, 6 years into Xi's era, with a focus on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) discourse.Seen as a key diplomatic initiative of China, the BRI narratives expressed through the international mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provide us with a unique window to study how China wants the world to see it within the world order in the context of China's growing political, economic and cultural influence.
In our exploration, we follow Miskimmon et al.'s (2013) argument that strategic narratives have three phases: formation, projection and reception.We mainly focus on the projection phase of the Chinese narratives on the OBOR Initiative, which evolved into the more inclusive BRI.We agree with Zeng (2016) that when new ideas are put forward by Chinese leaders (the formation period), they are not always clearly defined.Frequently, the substance of the strategic narratives underlying Chinese-coined concepts is filled in by China's scholarly and policy community in an incremental and subsequent manner.This is consistent with Urio (2018) who reminds us, quoting the sinologist François Jullien, that when it comes to China, Europeans usually perform a kind of 'outsider thinking' that privileges 'being'.He proposed that it is necessary to consider the idea of 'becoming'.We therefore pose the following major research question:

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• What is the discourse of China's outbound media on its role in international affairs in Xi's New Era?
Two sub-questions are devised, the answers to which will lead us to the answer to the above question: ○ How does China want the world to see it in Xi's New Era? ○ Has China built up a clearer vision of its role in the new world order as compared to 2012?
As such, our principal concern is the messages that China's state-owned international mouthpiece is broadcasting to the world.How effectively the messages are being received or contested is not the focus of this paper.Rather, the findings of this paper should be understood as grounded in the author's earlier research, and they throw fresh light on Xi's China by examining the country's evolving discourse on reshaping its international image and how it intends to shape the world.The relationship between projection and reception merits research in another project.
The paper will start with a brief review of the theories underpinning our analysis and the methods employed.A brief introduction to the shifting context within which OBOR evolved into the BRI will also be carried out before analysing CGTN's YouTube content on the BRI from 2018 and 2019.The paper will finish with a summary of the findings and their implications and research suggestions for the future.

Theories underpinning the examination
This paper is rooted in the discipline of discourse analysis, with a focus on content and thematic analysis.Van Dijk (1985, 1988a, 1988b, 2009, 2017) has developed a range of complex and multilevel approaches -both theoretical and methodological -to the study of news discourse.He argues that in news reporting, discourse analysis offers a complement to more traditional forms of content analysis, as it allows for inquiry 'into the abstract formal structures of news reports as well as into their subtle underlying meanings, in a way usually ignored in content analysis' (van Dijk, 1988a: x).His news schemata (van Dijk, 1985) proposes a framework for analysis of the structures of news discourse in the press.According to this framework, news reports exhibit three primary discourse structures for analysis: macrostructures, superstructures and microstructures.
Macrostructures denote the article's thematic content -the topic (or topics) under discussion and around which the narrative is created.In news reporting, this is primarily outlined in the headline and lead paragraphs.Thematic analysis thus 'takes place against the background of a theory of semantic macrostructures' (van Dijk, 1985: 69).These semantic macrostructures (van Dijk, 1985(van Dijk, , 2009) ) -representing the global meanings, topics and themes embodied within instances of discourse -illustrate the areas of specific importance to the speaker, and thereby act as critical areas of interest in this study, as news headlines and lead paragraphs constitute primary sites for highlighting such information.Superstructures, by contrast, are schematic and are used 'to distinguish. ..a global form of organization from (semantic) macrostructures' (van Dijk, 1985: 85).They outline the structure of a news article and consist of three identifiable sections: the introduction (generally imparted by the headline or lead paragraphs), the substance (the content and discussion) and the conclusion (a summary, or the results or outcome of the article).Finally, microstructures deal with the semantic, syntactic, lexical, stylistic and rhetorical structures of discourse and function as 'the basic proposition to describe the detailed event or state' (Zhang et al., 2014: 201).
In choosing textual data from online video-based news reports as our data source, we are acknowledging and adapting van Dijk's (1988b) news schemata, 'which both journalists and readers at least implicitly use in the production and understanding of news' (p.57), whereby headlines, together with leads which may or may not be present, structurally function to express the major topics of the text -that is, they function as an initial summary (van Dijk, 1988b: 53).Van Dijk (1988a) regards headlines as the most prominent feature of the news discourse: 'They subjectively express the most important information of the text, that is, the main topic or the top of the semantic macrostructure.They define the situation and, thus, programme the reader with a preferred reading and interpretation plan' (Van Dijk, 1988a: 226).
Therefore, within the context of a news report, the headlines assume a central and revealing role in the (re)production of ideologies (Zhang, 2006).As news reporting has moved into the digital realm, alternative formats for the presentation of information have evolved, but we argue that they continue to make general use of this schema.For example, in CGTN's YouTube video news reports, there is still a 'headline' in the form of the video title, and the 'lead' may be considered as synonymous with the video summary, as it provides a guide to the video before viewing.
It is notable that while macrostructures and microstructures are observable within the textual data, the tripartite nature of superstructure within news reporting is split across the textual and visual data in our sample, with the video title functioning as an introduction and the video description functioning as a conclusion/summary (both of which are replicated within the video report), but with the substance of the news report often being addressed solely in the video content.Given the textual nature of this investigation, we are therefore primarily focussed on the macrostructures and microstructures exhibited by these written extracts.

Method: CGTN's YouTube content on BRI, a case study
CGTN, relaunched on 31 December 2016 as the global-facing news arm of Central China Television Station (CCTV), consists of six TV channels, three overseas branches, a video content provider and a digital media division, with combined viewing figures estimated to be around 50 million (Flew, 2017).CGTN exists to reach out to the international community, promoting China's image abroad and influencing the conditions under which it would attempt to expand its international standing.In addition, as all forms of media within China are subject to official influence and scrutiny, China's news media offers a window into how the party-state thinks.CCTV is the heart of the Chinese news system, thus providing researchers with vast amounts of information on how the Chinese state wants the world to see it.

CGTN's social media platforms
Chinese news media is profoundly different from -and unfamiliar to -the media that Western audiences have come to expect (Sun, 2010).Previous studies of China's push for global media influence also show that its efforts have been compromised by its own domestic policies of media censorship and state intervention, which reduce credibility among international audiences within an already crowded news media landscape (Morales, 2021;Thussu, 2018).This must also be paired with an understanding of how Chinese state media navigate the complex and interdependent worlds of international news media and social media -which has become widely adopted around the globe as a method of news dissemination (Lee et al., 2017).As a remedy to the challenges, Chinese media has expanded over the past decade across all international broadcasting channels to include social media in an effort to reach out to and engage with the international public.CGTN in particular has actively employed overseas social media accounts, including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.According to its own website, 'by the end of September 2017, CGTN's (2017) digital platforms had an active global following of 65.2 million, about 97 per cent of whom are overseas'.This digital outreach, utilizing alternative platforms for the distribution of news content -particularly that which can be so easily embedded in international social media networks -makes CGTN's YouTube content particularly important as a site of study, as it represents an engaging way for the Chinese administration to 'tell China's story well' (Xi, 2017) to foreign audiences.In doing so, CGTN crafts a narrative which is in accordance with CCP party ethos and ideology and seeks to challenge dominant Western reporting themes and tones on China.In this regard, a study of CGTN's overseas social media accounts is central to understanding how China wishes to be seen by the international community.
In choosing to prioritize the textual accompaniments to visual data for analysis over the images themselves, we are acknowledging the inextricability of text from image within the discourse realm of social media-driven news.However, at the time of writing, YouTube ranks as the second most popular site in the world in terms of internet engagement (Alexa Internet Inc., 2020).It therefore offers huge potential international engagement for all content creators.Within this audio-visual discursive environment, a video's title is fundamental to locating and identifying the subject matter and the accompanying textual description offers the reader either a précis of the video or an enticement to view.Therefore, these textual offerings are the entry point of consumption for the potential viewer, and deliver (at least a portion of) the video's narrative before the viewer has elected to watch the clip.
Our dataset spans 12 months from August 2018 to July 2019 and covers textual data extracted from the titles and descriptions of 91 videos in English, published across CGTN's primary English-language YouTube channels (CGTN, CGTN Africa and CGTN America).These clips range from around 30 seconds to 45+ minutes.In our investigation, we employ content analysis in addition to thematic analysis.We look at frequency and choice of words, topics and themes in their political and socio-economic contexts.The titles are treated as equivalent to headlines, and summaries as equivalent to lead paragraphs.Data was coded thematically rather than based solely on keywords.Owing to the nature of video news reporting (and the vast scope of the BRI project), most examples received multiple codes.This paper also benefits from interviews with CGTN staff members conducted between 2018 and 2019, which serve to contextualize the findings from the content and discourse analyses of the data.

Xi's China in 'the New Era'
Economic reform in China started in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping with the aim of rejuvenating the country after decades of Mao's dominant 'class struggle' according to Marxism.Over the next three decades, China followed Deng Xiaoping's low-profile foreign policy to international affairs and concentrated on a 'peaceful rise'.
With growing confidence during the term of Hu Jintao between 2004 and 2012, a rise to great global power status started to appear in academic and official discussions in China.In 2005, Zheng (2005) Bijian, a government political advisor, wrote of China's 'rise to great power status'.However, the outcome of the changed Chinese perceptions was most obvious during Xi Jinping's leadership.Since coming to power in November 2012, Xi's leadership has been characterized by a visible strengthening of the mechanisms of control within the Party (Bader, 2016).At the same time, a far-reaching sevenyear reform plan was adopted in late 2013 (Wang et al., 2019).In 2018, the Chinese economy surpassed 90 trillion yuan, cementing its place as second in the world.In addition, Xi's leadership proposed the 'Chinese Dream' as a form of national renaissance (Wu and Yan, 2012) started by his predecessors.But most noticeable is the Xi administration's continued deviation from Deng Xiaoping's 'low profile' stance and its 'striving for achievement' as a major global power in the theatre of geopolitics.The clearest evidence came in 2013, soon after Xi assumed the CCP's top post of general secretary of the CCP Central Committee, when he instigated the OBOR Initiative.In October 2017, Xi delivered his report to the 19th National Congress of the CCP.A cornerstone of that meeting was the adoption of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which laid out a 'new vision of development' and a road map for 'developing a modernized economy' (An, 2017).

From 'OBOR' to BRI: The evolving concept
Prior studies of China's development of the Silk Road Economic Belt have appraised the economic impact of the project (Huang, 2016;Zhai, 2018) and addressed how the Chinese government and state-owned media choose positive frames while promoting the project to international communities (Gao, 2018).Others have discussed the ways in which foreign policy has been shaped (Ferdinand, 2016) and, accordingly, many scholars agree that the project, which is of unprecedented geographical and financial scope, is indicative of China's resolve in pursuing its grand vision (Yu, 2015).Its move from a 'One Belt One Road' project to the more inclusive 'Belt and Road Initiative' further demonstrates China's increasing global ambitions.
Often described as the most significant and far-reaching initiative that China has ever put forward, the OBOR project was first proposed during Xi's state visits to Kazakhstan in September 2013 and to Indonesia in October 2013.Five major goals sit within a broad framework of connectivity and cooperation: policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds.Often compared with the US-led Marshall Plan, which aimed to revive Western Europe in the post-World War II era (e.g.Chen, 2014;Shen, 2016;Shen and Chan, 2018), it is considered by many as China's response to the American-led Trans-Pacific Partnership or, perhaps more accurately, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Shen, 2016;Ye, 2014).The development of the initiative can be divided into three phases, each argued to indicate China's growing ambition.The BRI strategy started with periphery diplomacy in late 2013.In early 2014, it started to include Africa and some European countries.Then in late 2015, China opened the BRI's membership to all countries.This expanding process is seen to show China's increasing ambition for transforming the global political and economic landscape.
'Building a community with a shared future for mankind' In this analysis section, we will first look at the geographical distribution of reportage on the BRI, the schema of word frequencies and topic frequencies, all presented by NVivo from the titles and summaries of the videos within the one-year dataset.Finally, we will analyse the themes derived from the topic frequencies.Wherever necessary, we watched the videos for either further information or contextualization of the themes.

Behind the geographical focus of BRI reportage
Within the dataset examined, Europe received 22 per cent of the reportage, the highest percentage of the channel's BRI news coverage during the year.A closer check on the programmes shows that this high level of coverage was primarily due to the participation of Italy in the BRI project, and the associated commentary on the importance of Italy's participation, especially because the non-binding agreement was signed during President Xi's visit to Italy (CGTN, 2019p) prior to Monaco and France, the first visit by a Chinese head of state to the European nation in ten years.Although Europe was not in the planning stage of the BRI project, the fact that Italy was the first Group of Seven (G7) country to sign up was celebrated by China as a milestone in the development of the BRI project.CGTN hailed it as a major step in enhancing macroeconomic policy coordination and cooperation on economic and financial issues between the two countries: 'Chinese President Xi Jinping is wrapping up a state visit to Italy, after recruiting an important new member to the BRI' (CGTN, 2019m).On 27 March 2019, CGTN reported again on this achievement: 'As the BRI reaches further across the globe, it's picking up bigger players and heavier hitters.With Italy, a G7 member on board, projects aimed at boosting infrastructure, economies, and most of all, connectivity, are gaining new life' (CGTN, 2019a; Figure 1).
The cooperation, inking a total of 29 deals worth US$22.5 billion across an array of sectors (Ellyatt, 2019), was also promoted as a model for win-win collaboration and for dialogues between East and West.The on-location news report by CGTN America's YouTube channel on 23 March 2019 said that Italian officials hoped to attract investments to build a new port with a much larger capacity so that it would be transformed into a Mediterranean hub (CGTN America, 2019c).For China, the Italian ports were expected to be an important part of the Chinese-Italian agreements, with ports in Italy offering new gateways to the European market.
As a counterpoint to China's excitement, however, Italy's move was seen by some as undermining Europe's attempt to withstand -or compete with -China's economic might.As the video entitled 'Italy PM meets resistance at signing on to China's BRI' on 20 March 2019 indicates, Italy's bilateral deal with China caused concern among its neighbours, especially as it came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a coordinated European approach to the superpower (CGTN America, 2019b).CGTN had played down the concerns by saying that some people 'are worried about China' due to lack of knowledge and exposure, rather than on justifiable grounds.Xi was reported to assuage concerns in Europe, saying during his visit to France that 'cooperation is bigger than competition between China and Europe' (Xinhua, 2019).
The BRI in Asia received 19 per cent of CGTN's coverage under the same parameters.This amount of coverage reflects and demonstrates the importance of Asia in the BRI project.As discussed above, the BRI was initially proposed for China's periphery diplomacy.The strategic goal of this initiative was to put periphery diplomacy into practice.As was confirmed by one of Zeng's interviewees in Beijing, periphery diplomacy has always been at the 'core' of the BRI project (Zeng, 2017: 11).
The coverage of the BRI in Africa amounted to 14 per cent of the videos, which primarily centred around developments in West Africa.Since Africa was included from the second development of the BRI, 38 Sub-Saharan African countries had signed up for the BRI project by March 2020 (The Green Belt and Road Initiative Center, 2020).
The remaining 45 per cent (including South America and Melanesia, at 1% each) of the videos discussed the BRI project from a global perspective or mentioned multiple locations around the world.For reports that were region-focussed, primacy within CGTN's coverage was shown towards Southern Europe, Southeastern Asia and Western Africa.
CGTN's geographical focus coincided with China's gradual opening up to the world in participating in this project on the one hand, while on the other, it also showed that most participating countries so far were developing countries, thus explaining the importance China placed on the participation of Italy.

Schema of word frequency, topic frequency and themes
In the schema of word frequency below, larger text size indicates greater frequency.We can see that such words as 'belt', 'road', 'international' and 'cooperation' appear the most frequently (Figure 2).
The schema of word frequency is consistent with the identified topics from the titles and summaries.The top ten topics are listed below in Figure 3, with international cooperation ranking the highest, followed by promotion of the BRI, infrastructure, economy, repudiation of criticism, diplomacy, environment, culture, globalization and investment.
To gain a better insight into the way China sees itself in taking up the role of a global leader, we next explore the themes derived from the topics.More specifically, we go beyond the discourses to an explanation of how and why discourses under particular themes are produced.

International cooperation: Building up inclusiveness for win-win outcomes
MacDonald (2018: 32) points out that: the truly smart thing about American power in the 100 years since Woodrow Wilson's seminal Fourteen Points speech has been the emphasis on the common good.The US has been at its most influential -and its interests best served -where it has been perceived as acting in the broader interest of the global community.
From the dataset examined, over 40 per cent of the videos focus on international cooperation, with several videos emphasizing the mutual benefits to participants in the project, with the phrase 'win-win' appearing multiple times in titles and summaries.Other most frequently used words show joint efforts and reciprocity: ○ agreement ○ bilateral ties ○ bond ○ cooperation ○ collaboration ○ co-building ○ coexistence ○ connectivity ○ common development ○ involvement ○ jointly advancing ○ joint venture ○ mutual benefits ○ pragmatic cooperation ○ share the vision ○ sharing of governance experience ○ shared economic expansion ○ win-win cooperation ○ win-win outcomes ○ work together All these words and expressions give the viewers a positive feeling of China's willingness to share its economic dividends, build up inclusiveness and foster reciprocity.Taking the video from 27 April 2019 entitled 'Belt and Road: a whole new world' as an example: 'The BRI is not just one belt or one road.It is many belts and many roads.And many of the roads don't lead to Beijing.They will be paths from anywhere and to everywhere' (CGTN, 2019c).
Collaboration also promises real win-win outcomes: Connecting the world: it is not a new idea, but this time it is bigger and faster.That is Chinaproposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).Some might say it is just a pie in the sky, but is it?BRI is not a pie in the sky -the sky isn't even the limit.(CGTN, 2019d) This is how Xi Jinping's 'building a community with a shared future for mankind' is conveyed and promoted.
Promoting BRI: Stories and storytellers matter Tuch (1990: 3) defines public diplomacy -a means to promote soft power -as a government communication process with foreign publics 'in an attempt to bring about understanding for its nation's ideas and ideals, its institutions and cultures, as well as its national goals and current policies'.As a mouthpiece of the government, CGTN's social media platform no doubt promotes the BRI and the values and motivations associated with the strategy.The best way to show that this strategy is successful and to persuade more to come on board the project is to tell stories of how the project benefits the world, and how the world welcomes the China-led international initiative.The clip from 27 March 2019 states: 'Six years since China proposed the Belt and Road initiative, countries are better linked by sea and land via infrastructure networks with not only Europe but also the Middle East and Africa' (CGTN, 2019a).
The report dated 12 April 2019 is also a typical example of promoting the BRI as winning hearts and minds: 'The nation of Azerbaijan continues its steadfast support for China's Belt and Road Initiative' (CGTN, 2019b).
Whether a story is convincing or not depends not only on the story but also whose story it is, as highlighted by the title of the 21 April 2019 report, 'Who should you believe about BRI?' (CGTN, 2019n), which concedes that 'the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted cheers and jeers'.CGTN has carefully given balanced voices to foreign government officials, experts (scholars), journalists and 'ordinary people', often via interviews, for their positive views as a way of promoting BRI: 'Special guests from different parts of the world tell their stories and share their insights about the BRI' (CGTN, 2019j).
Government officials ranked the highest on the programmes.This may be explained by Beijing's hosting of the Second Forum on the BRI in Beijing during the examined period, with high-level government officials attending the event.There were also various reports on Xi's meetings with his foreign counterparts.These reports are found to always stress the significance of the BRI and call for further ties through the co-building of this initiative.
Experts and scholars are the second most frequently invited guests to air their views in support of the BRI strategy.As the summary of the report on 18 February 2019 states: 'According to recent conclusions reached by various experts from international think tanks, the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has an immense international effect and has brought strategic changes along the way' (CGTN, 2019i).
Finally, there are also 'ordinary people' to share their stories.For instance, the four winners of CGTN's 'BRI, My Story' essay contest joined CGTN to share their stories of how the initiative has changed their lives: 'Besides the trade figures and employment numbers, let's not forget the ordinary people that are at the center of this mega project.
Here are four of them from Russia, Fiji, Uganda and the Maldives' (CGTN, 2019e).

Investment, infrastructure and economy
An important theme around the BRI is boosting connectivity and infrastructure through cooperation (CGTN, 2019f).The BRI project calls for significant investments in infrastructure development/redevelopment for transportation links such as ports, roads, railways and airports, but also includes energy production projects and telecommunications networks, a development strategy aimed at improving regional cooperation and connectivity on a transcontinental scale.For instance, CGTN talks about how China's BRI project is helping shape and advance Africa's development priorities: Infrastructure is a key driver for progress and economic growth in Africa.But the continent's vast infrastructure deficit remains a constraint on its growth.The BRI is, however, creating a fresh wave of investment in Africa's road, rail, port and energy infrastructure, making the continent more connected internally and with the outside world.(CGTN Africa, 2019b) Ethiopia is a case in point: 'BRI is contributing to development on the African continent.Ethiopia's rapid industrialization is expected to be hugely sustained by the Belt and Road Initiative' (CGTN Africa, 2019a).
The China Railway Express is given much exposure for driving local economies.In Kenya, for instance: 'It now only takes five hours from Nairobi to Mombasa thanks to the Standard Gauge rail link built under the BRI' (CGTN, 2019l).
The two-episode series named The Silk Rail Road is a first-ever co-production by CGTN and NGC (National Geographic Channel).It investigates how the China Railway Express is benefiting the countries and people along the route of the BRI (CGTN, 2018a).
Likewise, for China's neighbouring countries, 'High-speed rail is changing how locals work, travel, and do business' (CGTN, 2019f).The example used is that of 32-yearold An Xingjie, who operates a seafood business in Ruili, China's south-western border city with Myanmar.The high-speed rail makes it possible for him to sort, pack and distribute fresh crabs straight from the Indian Ocean in Chinese cities.
The BRI is reported to be as much needed in Europe as in Africa: 'According to Italy's Undersecretary for Economic Development, the country hopes to increase exports to China by another $8 billion, and benefit from numerous infrastructure improvements.It would be a sorely needed shot in the arm to an ailing economy' (CGTN America, 2019c).

Repudiation of criticism replaced by language of moral high ground
Zhang's 2013 work identified a tendency for China's national flagship CCTV's CCTV Africa to be mostly engaged with the repudiation of criticism during the examined timeframe.However, the current research project finds that the language used in this dataset no longer appears to reflect that aggressive trait.It has come down to fifth place in the ranking of topic frequencies.In addition, such repudiation is now more subtle.For example: 'The need to act in times of great change is as relevant as ever, while the West's strategy to deal with change is denial and indifference' (CGTN, 2019i).Although six videos contain repudiation of international criticism of the BRI project, the overall tone of the collected news items is far less defensive.More importantly, instead of giving too much space to defending China, CGTN commits itself more to issues of global concerns such as environmental protection and climate change (CGTN, 2019o), as the two examples below demonstrate: As more and more countries and partners get involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), not just trade but also climate change needs to be a top priority, California's Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis told CGTN on Thursday.'We very much hope to see that the BRI projects elevate the issue of environmental protection and climate change to the very top of the agenda'.(CGTN, 2019h) 'China has been committed to the philosophy of openness, integrity and the promotion of green infrastructure, green investment and finance in an effort to protect our Mother Earth', said President Xi Jinping in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF).(CGTN, 2019n) What CGTN vowed on 25 April 2019 summarises China's latest use of language for the BRI: 'China will continue to promote BRI infrastructure development: high-quality, sustainable and accessible infrastructure' (CGTN, 2019g).

Cultural and people-to-people exchange and diplomacy
The BRI is not just presented as constructing infrastructure but as also building connectivity on many other different levels.One of the BRI's core 'Cooperation Priorities' is that of 'people-to-people' connections and cultural exchanges.In other words, besides infrastructure, investment and economy, cultural exchanges are also promoted frequently.As the summary of the programme on 26 November 2018 claims: New episode focuses on the Piraeus port in Greece and its role in the Belt and Road Initiative linking Europe and China.It highlights the construction and business opportunities for the China-European land and Sea Express Line, and also the cultural exchanges between Greece and China.(CGTN, 2018c) Zhang Jun, China's assistant foreign minister, was reported as saying at a news briefing that 'with the development of the BRI, China and Iran share great opportunities in infrastructure construction and trade cooperation, as well as people-to-people exchanges' (CGTN, 2018b).The primacy CGTN places on representing culture and people-to-people exchanges within its BRI coverage is not surprising, as these are considered key elements of China's soft power strategy for global influence.By the 13th Five-Year Plan, cultural power was frequently referenced in party communications.In the introduction to a party document titled 'The Chinese Logic of the Construction of Cultural Power', Shen (2017) refers to the auspicious moment when Xi Jinping 'utilized a series of new values, new ideology, new judgements, to further respond to the question confronting the Chinese people at this point in history: why and how to construct a strong socialist form of cultural power' (p. 1).As Xi indicated in his speech to the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in 2015, the BRI will 'promote inter-civilization exchanges to build bridges of friendship for our people, drive human development and safeguard peace of the world' (China Internet Information Center, 2015).

The BRI project and globalization
In 2017, amid a rising tide of protectionism, anti-globalization sentiment and other economic and political issues, President Xi's keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos delivered a notable defence of 'economic globalization' (Xinhua, 2017b).Later in the year, China hosted the inaugural Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.Consistent with his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum, rather than retreating from globalization, the president provided a comprehensive prescription to address the problems identified.In expressly rejecting 'outdated geopolitical manoeuvring', Xi presented a vision of the BRI as a new paradigm of coexistence, cooperation and development, with a 'new model of win-win cooperation' at its core (Xinhua, 2017a).
Discussions on how the BRI fits into the new world order and its subsequent impact are naturally showcased on CGTN's YouTube channel.The BRI project is promoted as an 'engine' for future globalization (CGTN, 2019k, CGTN, 2019l) through the following accolades: ○ The BRI helps drive global prosperity.○ It enhances regional development and international integration.○ It builds the world's largest network of infrastructure as globalization pushes the world towards connectivity.○ The BRI is bound to usher in an even better world.○ It will drive human development and safeguard world peace.
At the second Belt and Road Forum, globalization and regional schemes in conjunction with the BRI were among the discussion topics (CGTN, 2019j).In a similar vein, in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony on 26 April 2019, Xi stated that the BRI opens more room for global growth and that countries should work together to seek shared economic expansion.China 'is vying to build the world's largest network of infrastructure as globalization pushes the world towards connectivity' (CGTN America, 2019a).Although CGTN's coverage of the BRI's global growth shows more confidence when discussing peripheral and other developing countries, it also seeks to underline China's excitement at enticing Western nations to the project, and the tone of its coverage is reflective of that mood.

Conclusion: Findings, implications and suggestions
This paper set out to examine how China continues to shape its image within the global political landscape through an analysis of CGTN's coverage of Xi's signature BRI foreign policy on its arguably most engaging social media platform, through comparison with a prior study (Zhang, 2013).This paper has made some important findings.CGTN's social media discourses on the BRI project entwine discursive strands.First, while the BRI project is ostensibly economic, investing in infrastructure projects and forming economic partnerships around the world, narratives around it concern cooperation and winwin outcomes.They show that China hopes to establish itself as a leader in economic globalization, bringing benefits to all.The BRI project was therefore promoted as a driver for infrastructure construction and global growth.Second, different from 2012, of the top ten themes identified from the dataset, repudiation of criticism was still present, but it ranked fifth, giving the top priority place to the rhetoric of shared growth, inclusivity, reciprocity and win-win outcomes.The BRI was also depicted as environmentally friendly: open, green and climate change-aware.Third, China's BRI was represented as connecting people of different cultural backgrounds.After all, people-to-people and cultural exchanges are considered China's soft power strategy for global influence.The narratives thus sought to expand China's cultural power and influence in the global arena.In fact, CGTN's active use of YouTube is itself part of its cultural diplomacy strategies.Finally, CGTN celebrated incorporating ever more of the world's nations into China's project.Relationship building is important for China.CGTN, at times, demonstrates more confidence with the peripheral and other developing countries, yet the excitement in getting Western countries on board for the BRI is obvious.However, the dataset does not contain language that indicates China is proposing something completely different from the existing world -the discourses used were the discourses that have existed for a long time in the international community.
What do the findings tell us?Jäger and Maier (2009) argued that differing strands of discourse often converge around a particular topic, thereby creating 'discursive knots' in which multiple discursive fragments become entangled together (p.47).Unpacking these discursive strands on the BRI lead us to conclude that, 6 years into Xi's era and now as the world's second-largest economy and largest developing economy, China has developed a more consistent discourse on the world order and how it wants the world to see its position in world affairs.It is projecting itself to the outside world as a driver in building an open, inclusive, clean and therefore beautiful, world that enjoys sustainable prosperity, enduring peace, universal security and common prosperity.Emphasis is placed on 'the benefits to all'.All these are in line with Xi's concept of 'Community with a shared future for mankind'.This is a big step forward from 2012, when it was not able to provide a vision of what the new world order would be like.However, the findings also show that in contrast to the 'rise' of China often cited in Western discourse, that China wants to take over the existing global order 'whole and intact' (Gokhale, 2020), there is no evidence yet to show that China wants to take over the world from the US-led West yet.Rather, the dataset shows that China is seeking legitimacy in sharing the leadership in certain areas, especially among the developing countries.
To conclude, through the examination of its official social media, the study shows that China is projecting to the outside world an image of a responsible global leadership.Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a change in the global multilateral system that has been progressing over the past few years.It is therefore all the more important to understand how China wants the world to see it and whether China has built up a clearer vision of its role in world affairs.This paper has laid the foundation for future research on CGTN's continued construction of China's image as a global leader.In other words, it has prepared us to study its 'reception', the third phase of strategic narratives.It is only after we have answered questions such as 'how impactful are CGTN's social media on international opinion' that we can determine if the projections are successful.After all, 'reception', the third phase of strategic narratives, is as important as formation and projection.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Geographic focus by duration of video.