Research On China’s Discourse Power Construction In Cyber Security Field

The current international arena witnesses a contrast pattern of "strong west" and "weak east" in terms of discourse power.For the rising China,strengthening the international discourse power and making it match with China’s overall national strength has become an important goal of its foreign policy.At the same time,with the rapid development of science and technology after the Cold War,internet has become a basic way for daily life and production,while it has also spawned more global non-traditional security issues.The definition of cyber security and the formulation of international rules have become the new focus of discourse competition among countries.Striving for stronger discourse power in the field of cyber security is crucial for safeguarding China’s fundamental national interests.This thesis takes "How to enhance China’s international discourse power in the field of cyber security" as the core question,to which the thesis attempts to provide answers and useful suggestions based on theoretical analysis and academic argumentation.Based on previous researches,this thesis firstly generalizes the theories about the relationship between discourse and power,and the way power affects discourse given by the scholars including Michel Foucault and Norman Fairclough as the basic perspective of analysis.Secondly,the thesis analyzes the impact of different cybersecurity classifications such as cyberattacks,cybercrime,and cyberwarfare as crucial components of national security and the difficulty in the international governance of those problems caused by issues like ideological divergence.Based on these problems this thesis sorts out four forms of competition of discourse power including ideology,discourse element,mastery of digital and technical standards and the building of international rules and institutions.Main topics of discourse competition in cybersecurity such as "cyber sovereignty","data privacy","universal rule","information freedom" and "information security" will be covered in general.Then the thesis selects the two core and hot topics of "Information Security" and"Information Freedom" for a comparative case study.Based on the documents from states and international organizations and the public discourse data in the corpus,the thesis points out the challenges posted to China by Western countries,and the space left for China’s to overcome the challenge under the two topics.With the problems found,this thesis further borrows the theory of soft power and concepts of "agenda setting" and "effect of discourse communication" from science of Communication Studies to provide a theoretical analysis before answering the core question from two aspects:discourse factors and non-discourse factors.Finally,this paper specifically replies to the core question on how to enhance China’s international discourse power in the field of cyber security.Eight suggestions will be given:to understand the construction of discourse power in cybersecurity field from two perspectives of both discourse and non-discourse factors;to comprehensively balance the pursuit of security and freedom in cyber space;to embrace the global diversity and ideological variety in cyber space;to fully tap on the effect of international rule and international institutions on the construction of discourse power through international cooperation and international governance;to take into account mainstream issues and focus on the available space for key topics;to increase the country’s internet technology and transform it into governance capability in safeguarding cyber security;to enhance ideological innovation and self-confidence in Chin’s discourses;strengthen the discourse power through cooperation at different levels based on China’s dual identities of both developed and developing countries in cyber development.The thesis comprehensively uses the theories of International Relations and Communication Studies to analyze the cases and combines quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis to explain the finding.By doing so the thesis strives to make theoretical contributions and breakthroughs on this interdisciplinary and cutting-edge topic,and also put forward possible research space for future studies,including the quantification of discourse power share and the communication effects of policy-based discourse.