CHINA’S POLITICAL NARRATIVE: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF VICTOR GAO’S AL JAZEERA INTERVIEW WITH MEHDI HASSAN

Abstract

Given the aspect of China's military strategies and governance system, this study covers the critical discourse analysis of Victor Gao’s interview with Mehdi Hassan. Since the relationship between language and power is very significant, it aims to explore the China's political narative about the internal and external tensions. Purposive sampling of  Chinese premier Victor Gao’s interview with Mehdi Hassan streamed on August 9, 2024 is done to investigate the contemporary perspective of  China on the rising regional and global tensions using Fairclough's three-dimensional model. The analysis is done at the text dimension, the discursive dimension, and the sociocultural dimension. Findings revealed that, at the description level, values of words through contrastive schemes represent specific ideologies associated with one China policy and the opponents of China. At the interpretation level, text and context indicate political opponents as the only force responsible for the chaos and China as the bearer of circumstances. At the explanation phase, the discourse seems normative as China projects its diplomatic role as a global power in sustaining peace and seems to defend China's interests. This study also has some theoretical and practical implications for the world politics and journalism, and limitations for the further improvements.