China’s Image Construction In Nigerian English Media Reports On Human Community With A Shared Future

Human Community with a Shared Future put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping is a significant thought for global governance and how the international media report it via certain discourse strategies becomes an important part of China’s image construction by the international society.Given the strategic significance of China-Africa cooperation,a study on the reports on this topic by African media is conducive to comprehending how Africa perceives China and helps China cooperate with African nations more effectively.Taking the discursive strategies in Discourse-Historical Approach proposed by Reisigl and Wodak(2009)as the analytical framework,48 pieces of opinion articles from the mainstream English media in Nigeria as the data and Power Conc 1.0 and UAM Corpus Tool 3.3v as corpus-based analytical tools,this study conducts a discourse analysis on the construction of China’s image in the reports on the topic of Human Community with a Shared Future by Nigerian English media.Two research questions are addressed:(1)What are the characteristics of discursive strategies used by English media in Nigeria? To answer this question,three sub-questions are raised in reference to the analytical framework of discursive strategy:(a)How is China named and referred to linguistically?(b)What features and qualities are attributed to China?(c)What argument strategies are employed?(2)What kind of China’s image is constructed via these discursive strategies?The results show the following major characteristics of discursive strategy use in Nigerian English media reports concerning Human Community with a Shared Future.In nomination strategy,the pronoun “we”(128 times)representing Africa and China as a common side and membership categorization(218 times)are used to refer to China.In predication strategy,explicit predicates(49 times)and degree adverbs/adjectives(118 times)are used to attribute features to China.In argumentation strategy,topoi of responsibility(426 times),advantage/usefulness(171times)and number(165 times)are used to justify China’s features.Three major topics are presented in the reports: politics(27.08%),economy(25%)and public health(25%)especially COVID-19.In nomination strategy,pronoun “we” representing China and Africa as a common side with equal position expresses that China and Africa are not isolated from each other,and calls on the two sides to unite to deal with the negative economic effects,constructing China as an economic “in-group” with Africa.The membership categorization subdivides China into an African economic“partner” and political “friend”,with the former mainly embodied by phrasal collocations of “strategic partner” and “trade/business partner” and the latter appearing in the contexts of the history of good diplomatic relations.China as a“supporter” is constructed via explicit predicates in predication strategy as to provide financial and non-financial assistance,particularly in the area of public health.The image of “contributor” with great influence in the world that helps Africa facilitate economic construction and solve public health problems is constructed via degree adverbs/adjectives including superlative and comparative degrees in predication strategy and topos of number in argumentation strategy.In argumentation strategy,the topos of advantage/usefulness is mainly used to describe that China’s help has played a positive role in Africa and even the world,and with a combination of topos of advantage/usefulness with that of responsibility,China has been constructed as a responsible country pursuing mutual benefit for the development of Africa and the world as a whole.Through the above discursive strategies,China is constructed as a “partner” and a “friend”,a “supporter” and a “contributor”,and a “responsible nation” by the English media of Nigeria.