Research On The Strategy Of National Image Construction In Xi Jinping’s "Belt And Road" Speech

As a political discourse perspective that expresses the country ’s position,the international discourse of national leaders plays an important role in promoting the“Belt and Road” initiative.It is also an important way to build and enhance the national image.From the perspective of critical discourse analysis,with the help of Wodak’s discourse history analysis method and intertextuality theory,the research establishes a comprehensive analysis framework to explore Chairman Xi Jinping’s Along the way,"international discourse" is a form of "constructed national identity"and "how to construct through discourse",in order to reveal the interaction between discourse strategies and language realization forms and national image construction.The research corpus is selected from the Chinese national leader Xi Jinping’s international speech on the "Belt and Road" from October 2013 to September 2019.The corpus texts are from reliable sources,all of which are derived from the establishment of the People’s Network and the Chinese Communist Party News Network Database of Xi Jinping’s series of important speeches."The study found that based on vocabulary selection,through keyword frequency weight analysis,index analysis,and text sentiment analysis,Xi Jinping used the “Belt and Road” discourse to elaborate five specific themes of China ’s national image,construct a positive national identity,and demonstrate An image of a responsible country that is people-oriented,open and inclusive,loving peace,and win-win cooperation.In terms of discourse strategies,using referential strategies,through personal pronouns,spatial indicators,and conceptual metaphors,China consciously lists China and other cooperating countries as "members of the group," seeking a win-win cooperation in the international community.Using predicate instruction strategies,through analysis of explicit predicates,degree adverbs,and comparative rhetoric,China is given a responsible and highly collectivist image of member countries in the international community.Responsibility propositions,advantage propositions,historical propositions,cultural propositions,and digital propositions that use debate strategies reflect the image of China as a strong country that advocates peaceful cooperation,good neighborliness,and mutual benefit.The use of enhanced weakening strategies confirms China’s active national identity.In terms of intertextuality,two common intertextual means of mentioning and quoting were chosen.By quoting poetic proverbs and the words of famous people,referring to real stories,historical events at home and abroad,and personal experience,it proves that China has promoted cooperation with other countries.The friendly relations and cooperation have brought benefits to the people,showing that China is an open country that loves peace,respects differences,seeks common ground while reserving differences,and develops together.