A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American News Reports On The Belt And Road Initiative From CDA Perspective

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping has initiated “the Belt and Road Initiative” in2013,Chinese and western media have extensively reported the news reports about the initiative in recent years.As the mainstream newspaper for China to disseminate Chinese culture and politics to the whole world,the English version of China Daily has always been the main way for foreign readers to get Chinese information.Similarly,as one of the mainstream media in the United States,New York Times is also the first choice for the government to publicize political system,economic strategy and cultural communication.This study respectively selects twenty news reports on “the Belt and Road Initiative”in China Daily and New York Times as samples,and uses Fairclough's Three-dimensional Model as the theoretical framework.Using Ant Conc as a tool,this thesis constructs a small corpus.This research is divided into three aspects from Critical Discourse Analysis:First,by analyzing the high-frequency words,keywords and transitivity in the sample,the Chinese and American words about "one belt and one road" are deeply analyzed;Second,the aspect is to explain the intertextuality of the text by analyzing news source and reporting mode in the samples;Third,through institutional and social environment,it reveals the ideology in news reports.Through the study,the conclusions are as follows:(1)By comparing the sample databases of China Daily and New York Times,it is found that English words are basically similar through the two news reports on the initiative.However,in the China Daily database,the basic features words of the initiative appear frequently,while in New York Times,there are more words about "the West" and "Europe".This shows that China pays more attention to the connotation and significance of “the Belt and Road Initiative”,while the United States pays more attention to the impact of the initiative on the West and China's "threat theory".At the description stage,lexical choice and transitivity indicate that Chinese and American newspapers are more concerned on the connotation,significance and influence of the initiative.The differences are that the attitudes of Chinese and American newspapers on the initiative are not consistent.Chinese newspapers use more positive words to report facts,while the UnitedStates uses more negative words to question the initiative.At the interpretation stage,Chinese and American newspapers mainly use direct and indirect quotations to enhance the authenticity and objectivity of news reports.However,the contents of the two quotations are quite different from each other.China Daily pays more attention to the importance and practicality of the initiative,while New York Times mostly suggests that China's occupation of global ambitions and the initiative are unrealistic through the so-called official and expert remarks.At the explanation stage,this part mainly shows the influence of ideology and competition relationship between China and the United States,and the mainstream media coverage of the two countries is different from that of the Belt and Road Initiative.(2)The difference between the ideology and power structure of the two newspapers is also obvious.Through the analysis,it is found that Chinese newspapers pay more attention to the purpose of this initiative and the benefits which may bring to the countries along the line.Chinese newspapers focus on the significance and feasibility of the initiative,believing that it could promote economic growth among countries along the route.However,American newspapers exaggerate China's dominance in this initiative.American newspapers believe that the purpose of China's strengthening the initiative is to seek hegemony globally and control other countries,and fear that western countries would participate in the initiative.(3)The main factor leading to these differences is the different ideology and power structure of the country.Since China is a socialist country and the United States is a capitalist country,naturally the ideology and power structure of the two countries are quite different,so the two countries have different judgments and values on the same event.Therefore,news reports can not be objective,because it serves the interests of the government and the mainstream social ideology.This thesis can help readers to interpret the news reports about “the Belt and Road Initiative” in Chinese and American newspapers,understand the power structure and ideology of the two countries,enrich the dimensions of the study,and provide new ideas for future research on this initiative.