Political discourse analysis in operation
Belt and Road Summit coverage through translation
Nancy Xiuzhi Liu | University of Nottingham Ningbo China
After implementing of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for four years, the Chinese government convened the BRI Summits
in Beijing in 2017 and 2019, respectively. This article will address the questions of how the summits were covered in translated news by
using empirical data from news published on the Reference News, a state-owned newspaper that publishes translated news, in
comparison to news carried in People’s Daily, an authoritative national newspaper in China. Situated in the framework of
political discourse analysis (PDA) within critical discourse analysis (CDA) and using the method of qualitative thematic analysis, the study
shows that translated news is a platform where contentious ideologies are at play and where dominant ones leave little room for the
confrontational. In this process, translators are submissive actors whose work is navigated by the agenda set by the authorities in either
legitimizing or representing frames in mainstream media.
Keywords: political discourse analysis (PDA), news translation, Belt and Road Initiative, translator agency
Published online: 21 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.19038.liu
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.19038.liu
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