Linguistic Analysis of Political Media Discourse in China: Evolution, Current Problems and Trends

Sun' WENXIN Postgraduate Student; Department of Theory and Practice of Foreign Languages; Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba Miklukho-Maklaya str., 9, Moscow, 117198, Russia 1042235259@pfur.ru

Introduction

The concept of "discourse" was first proposed by the American linguist Zellig Sabbettai Harris in 1952. Thanks to the development of political philosophy and mass media, Western scholars have integrated the study of discourse into the field of political science, sociology, and media. The study of discourse overcomes the limitations inherent only in the study of language, focuses on the interaction of language, context and social relations, examines the use of language in various socio-cultural spheres and groups, explores the structure and functions of discourse, as well as its underlying ideology. Discourse is a complex communicative phenomenon that includes, in addition to the text, extralinguistic factors (knowledge about the world, opinions, attitudes, goals of the addressee, etc.) ^{[8, p. 99]}. It is always filled with ideological or vital content and meaning ^{[10, p. 140]}. In recent years, geopolitical conflicts and competition for power over international discourse have intensified, and political media discourse has become the main element of state "soft power." Events such as the China-US trade war and the Gaza issue show that the struggle for discursive power directly affects the course of international events and the legitimacy of ideologies. In addition, the development of digital and network technologies has changed the ecosystem of news distribution. Social networks, algorithmic recommendations and the use of artificial intelligence, presented by ChatGPT, have led to the undermining of the traditional way of spreading discourse. Political discourse must adapt to new scenarios such as short videos and virtual spaces. In this context, the study of political media discourse as a discursive perspective of political linguistics is of particular importance.

The subject of this work is the evolution of Chinese political media discourse, its linguistic characteristics, current issues and strategies. The object of the study is the various practices of Chinese political media discourse, disseminated in China and internationally. These include news reports in traditional media, as well as new types of media such as short videos, documentaries, and virtual spaces. The focus is on linguistic expressions and classical examples that characterize the features of discourse. It should be noted that the research results of Chinese and foreign scientists in this field serve as an important basis for empirical analysis and inductive generalizations in this work.

The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the article not only provides a comprehensive overview of the linguistic evolution of Chinese political media discourse in recent years, but also reveals new problems and trends in Chinese political communication against a modern background. Thus, the foundation is being laid for an in-depth study of the practice of Chinese political media discourse and an analysis of the new path of Chinese external discursive communication.

The current study has practical significance. On a theoretical level, it enriches the study of the current state of Chinese political discursive communication practice, provides examples for discourse analysis, and helps build a paradigm for Chinese discourse research independent of Western theories. On a practical level, from a linguistic point of view, the article offers constructive opinions for building China's international communication potential, preparing for an information war and a crisis of discourse development.

The analysis of the discourse of the Chinese political media is carried out within the framework of such areas as critical discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, multimodal discourse analysis, narrative theory and intercultural communication. By giving examples, we illustrate the features of modern Chinese political media discourse, identify communication problems and their solutions through comparison and analysis, and summarize future trends in Chinese political media discourse through abstraction.

Discussion and results

The definition of political media discourse in Chinese linguistics is mainly based on the combination of linguistics and political science, emphasizing its many properties as a carrier of ideology, mediator of power relations and a tool of social management. Based on the approach of critical discourse analysis, scholar Tian Hailong believes that political discourse "is based on value judgments, reflects the demands, attitudes and positions of people in relation to political systems, behavior and ideas, and also focuses on state power" ^{[15, p. 43]}. Political media discourse is perceived as a direct expression of ideological content that serves the meaning and purpose of political power relations. As Russian scientists say, the main function of discourse is the transmission of specific political values through a linguistic symbolic system, which reflects the demand for recognition of state systems, policies and methods of governance ^{[12, p. 67]}.

The practice of political discourse in modern Chinese media can be divided into internal and external communication practice. According to the direction of dissemination, there are two types of political discourse: "top-down" dissemination and "bottom-up" dissemination ^{[20, p. 15]}. As for the first one, the main topics of interest to academia include government discourse, information disclosure, and government image creation. Monographs such as "政治传播中的的公公公" (A study of the Distance between Government and the Public in Political Communication) and "中国"" have been published in this field (Communication of the image of the Chinese government), which systematically examines political discourse and defines the rules of its functioning. In addition, scholars also pay attention to the intentions and goals of political media discourse. Regarding bottom-up political discourse, existing research focuses on monitoring public opinion, political participation, political rumors, and public events. Books in this field include "A New Way to Build a New System of mainstream Media Discourse". The practice of external political communication mainly includes two categories: the formation of a national image and the dissemination of political ideas. Currently, research generally focuses on the historical evolution of China's external discourse, issues and strategies for shaping discourse and national image, as well as issues related to specific subjects such as "The Chinese Dream," "One Belt, One Road," "The Image of the Chinese Communist Party," and so on. For example, scholar Zhang Guangzhao analyzes political discourse in the texts of Xi Jinping's international speeches (2012-2021) in order to find out the "creation of a political concept" of Chinese discourse in international communication ^{[22, p. 16]}.

Based on the research results of Chinese scientists (Guo Ke, Xu Nuo, Tong Dezhi, Hu Rongtiao, and others), the evolution of Chinese political media discourse within China can be divided into four stages from the point of view of linguistics. Their main features are reflected in the interaction between forms of discourse, linguistic and rhetorical strategies, and means of communication. The period up to the 1980s was characterized by the unilateral imposition of political concepts ^{[13, p. 108]}. The structure of the text was dominated by short phrases, motivational and imperative sentences. For example, "鼓足干劲, 力争上游, 多快好省地建设社会主义" (straining every nerve, striving forward, build socialism on the principle of More, Faster, Better and more Economical). There is also "抗美,, 保卫祖国国" (to oppose America, support Korea, defend the Motherland). Absolutist expressions such as "must", "resolute", and "guiding core" were often used. The dissemination of discourse relies on traditional media, including newspapers and radio. The language and visual symbols, including red flags and portraits of leaders, were highly conventional. The next period since 2000 until 2010 . It became a stage of symbolic encoding. To visualize abstract politics, metaphors such as "crossing a river by groping for stones" were introduced, which means trial and error in the reform process in political discourse. And "middle-class society" is used as the goal of modernizing society. The use of metaphor has shifted political discourse from indoctrination to cognitive empathy ^{[14, p. 81]}. Television news began to combine language, images, and music, and the Xinwen Lianbo program (the daily news program of China Central Television) began using the title songs. The 2010s and 2020s are the phase of the narrative of political governance ^{[21, p. 102]}. Emotional symbols such as "dream" and "struggle" appear in political discourse, for example, "The Chinese Dream" (the socio-political course put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013). Syntactic complexity increases, complex sentences and arguments with data appear. Short video platforms deeply integrate language with visual symbols through animations, emoticons, and auditory symbols. For example, the animated short film "The 14th Five-year plan of the Chinese government" on the TikTok platform has been viewed more than 120 million times. 2020 is currently a stage of intellectual interaction. Online platforms for political services and virtual reality scenarios are used to create personalized narratives using algorithms ^{[13, p. 109]}. A new form of political media discourse is being formed, which combines virtual reality. For example, the state-owned service platform "浙里办" (Zhejiang), based on artificial intelligence, serves the people, the VR speech of deputies of the National People's Congress, and artificial intelligence automatically writes stories about "脱贫攻坚" (fighting poverty).

The overseas distribution of Chinese political media discourse can also be divided into four stages. But they differ slightly in time and content. The stage of ideological production (1949-1978). One-sided proliferation based on ideological confrontation ^{[17, p. 103]}. Through traditional media such as the Xinhua News Agency, the supremacy of the socialist system was unilaterally broadcast to the international community. The language style is reflected in the highly politicized vocabulary. For example, "the proletariat unites" and "resist imperialism and colonialism," the structure of the sentences was simple and understandable, but did not correspond to the cultural characteristics of the audience. In the period after the reforms and openness from 1978 to 2012, the stage of formation of the "soft power of culture" began, when the ideological confrontation was weakened ^{[7, p. 34]}. Thanks to Chinese cultural symbols such as the Confucius Institute and the success of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the country's image of "peaceful development" has been shaped. CCTV-4, the international channel of China Central Television, launched in 1992, and has become the main means of communication with foreigners. The language style has changed to a more modest one, with an emphasis on "mutual benefit and cooperation." The period from 2013 to 2020 will be a stage of deepening the strategic narrative of the discourse in international distribution. Using the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, China will combine political discourse, documentaries and digital platforms to create a three-dimensional narrative ^{[19, p. 101]}. It is worth noting that CGTN, as the international news distribution organization of China Central Television, broadcasts worldwide and currently distributes news abroad in 80 languages. The overseas edition of China Daily has released a special report on "One Belt, One Road" using the "story and data" model, which has effectively increased the number of interactions on foreign social networks. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has opened accounts on Twitter and other international social media to interact with an international audience and convey China's thoughts and opinions. The period from 2021 to the present is a stage of spreading China's political media discourse abroad under the guidance of intelligent platforms. Due to artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies, foreign platforms such as TikTok and Kwai are used for specific dissemination of information among various audiences using AI algorithms ^{[6, p. 63]}. Short videos about "fighting poverty in China" are being distributed in Southeast Asia, and "carbon neutrality" is being distributed in Europe. TikTok videos with the hashtag #Amazing China have been viewed over 50 billion times. Among them is the migration of Yunnan elephants to the north, which turned into a series of short videos. The anthropomorphic narrative through the "elephant travel diary" weakens the political connotation and naturally evokes an emotional response from a foreign audience. This story was also picked up by foreign media such as CNN, BBC and AP News.

However, the modern development of Chinese political media discourse also faces internal problems and international challenges. At the linguistic level, Chinese scientists believe that the problems of the current development of discourse can be summarized as follows. They relate to language expression, narrative strategy, cultural differences, and adaptation to the audience.

The uniformity of vocabulary and syntax is a typical problem of linguistic expression in Chinese political media discourse. According to Michel Foucault, discourse is not only a linguistic expression, but also a means by which power functions. Institutionalized models of discourse (for example, fixed vocabulary in political media) form a discursive order through repetition and normalization in order to consolidate the legitimacy of power structures ^{[3, p. 142]}. However, such repetition can lead to symbolic fatigue or "resistance to meaning" on the part of the audience. Expressions such as "the great rebirth of the Chinese nation," "resolutely implementing the party line," and "under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party" have been repeated over the years. The high frequency of the use of fixed vocabulary and the lack of diversity and innovation lead to stagnation of linguistic expression. The word "development" is used quite a few times in government reports, but the semantic expansion of the word in a certain context turns out to be incomplete. In addition, the syntactic model in discourse is simplified and overly relies on short and imperative sentences. For example, "adhere firmly to the four principles." Such expressions have no logical reasoning and are difficult to elicit an emotional reaction from the audience. The average sentence length in the political texts of traditional media is only 15 Chinese characters, and the discourse itself is based on the "authority-submission" paradigm ^{[5, p. 15]}. These formulations are difficult to adapt to the diverse cognitive needs of the audience, especially the youth demand for deep content.

The strategy of discursive storytelling is also one of the perspectives that deserves attention. According to Carmen Caldas-Coulthard, a narrative is a place where power operates and through which certain ideologies spread and consolidate ^{[1, p. 15]}. This approach emphasizes the instrumental role of narrative in political and social discourse. Early Chinese political media discourse was characterized by a one-sided narrative. He was used to achieving political consensus through repetitive slogans, but mass participation was low. Currently, some political discussions are too serious and rational, they lack emotionally saturated statements, which makes it difficult to receive sympathy and recognition from the audience. In the era of the popularity of social networks and short videos, the one-way communication model does not meet the new media trends and the actual needs of society. Moreover, in the international community, the narrative position of the Chinese political media is still self-centered. The content of the discourse is most often focused on China's political policy, culture, and economic development achievements. These messages are not relevant to foreign readers and are divorced from the real needs of a foreign audience. Therefore, it is not so easy to attract the attention and interest of foreign readers. CGTN's Russian-language channel has 543K subscribers on the Russian VK platform. Nevertheless, the published content is still focused on the development of China and receives few comments and likes due to the lack of narrative interaction with the target audience.

The problem of the adaptability of discourse to the audience also hinders the development of political media discourse in China. M. M. Bakhtin's theory of dialogue allows us to talk about the subjectivity of discourse, including differences in understanding and needs of different groups ^{[25, p. 107]}. According to According to Bakhtin, the subject of a dialogue can be not only an individual, but also a community that deduces its own intellectual paradigm for further understanding and research based on an external dialogue ^{[11, p. 217]}. That is why "understanding is always dialogical" and subjective: it is both mutual understanding, communication and self-knowledge. People of different age groups and different levels of knowledge have different abilities to understand political discourse. There is a difference between the Internet slang preferred by young people and the traditional authoritative discourses followed by the older generation. For example, young people in China often say "躺平", which means "to lie still and withstand ridicule, as a result, not to enter into intense competition at work." The older generation does not agree with this, they like "艰苦奋斗", namely "hard work". The language "二次元" is sometimes used in the text of the discourse. It originally means "two-dimensional world," which now belongs to the realm of anime, manga, games, and light novels. Although the language of "二次元" attracts the orientation of young groups, it is unfriendly towards middle-aged and older people and tends to create barriers to understanding the discourse. Serious political concepts risk becoming entertainment, which can weaken the authority of political discourse.

Moreover, cultural differences and translation problems in international communication reduce the real effectiveness of the translation of Chinese discourse. The translation and dissemination of Chinese political discourse is by no means a purely linguistic communication based on the discourse itself, but rather a reconstruction of the discourse and intercultural communication under the influence of various factors inside and outside the discourse ^{[18, p. 47]}. Chinese-specific political concepts are difficult to accurately understand in cross-cultural communication due to semantic losses. For example, only a few European listeners can correctly interpret the meaning of "democracy of the whole process" in China, and most of them mistakenly understand it as "election procedure" ^{[23, p. 9]}. The concept of "democracy of the whole process" emphasizes that democracy is not limited to elections, but also includes broad participation in decision-making, management and control. This concept is widely discussed in the Chinese political context, but may not be generally accepted or understood in Europe. Perhaps the European audience is more familiar with the model of representative democracy and is unaware of the broader types of participation.

Linguistic analysis suggests that practical solutions need to be developed to determine the future direction of Chinese political media discourse. This can be done in terms of linguistic expression, storytelling, speech style changes, and cultural adaptation.

First, it is necessary to update the linguistic expression of the discourse, introduce a variety of vocabulary and complex sentences. Using a variety of expressions will help to avoid language fatigue in the audience. Traditional Chinese media, as the main channel of discourse, should not present themselves as an authority, but they should use consultative formulations to build a political dialogue ^{[16, p. 50]}. Key policy concepts and attitudes should be explained more specifically and in detail in specific contexts. For example, in the report on the work of the State Council of the People's Republic of China for 2023, the term "high-quality development" is interpreted as "stimulating development through innovation," "green, recycling and low-carbon development," and many other expressions. The semantic connotation of the term is enriched by adding a defining word, which avoids the reuse of monosyllabic words. Complex sentences are introduced to visualize the abstract concept of "high-quality development". For example, "Thanks to the dual drive of scientific, technical and institutional innovations, not only the quality of the economy is effectively improved, but also reasonable quantitative growth is achieved." The use of complex sentences and logical connectives increases the rigor and persuasiveness of a political statement.

Secondly, the construction of discourse requires combining different styles of speech and ways of utterance. The style of speech is the linguistic realization of a way of activity ^{[2, p. 129]}. The reproduction of situational units leads to a mixture of different corporations at the level of language use, which, in turn, leads to the formation of a new way of expression ^{[4, p. 128]}. The intertextuality of various styles of discourse helps to achieve dialogue with subcultural groups, youth, marginal groups, etc., so that a certain popular discourse accompanies the official political discourse ^{[27, p. 20]}. You can try to combine authoritative content with youth discourse by combining the interests of different age groups. The development of the linguistic style "serious issues in youth expression" makes it possible to bridge the gap in discourse between generations. It is also possible to increase the amount of interactive content in the discourse. On platforms with many young Bilibili and Rednote users, mini-games dedicated to political initiatives can be launched to increase the interest and participation of young people through the game form. In addition, the Komsomol of China and the creators of the Bilibili platform jointly released the popular science animation "Chinese Space Station", the broadcast volume of which amounted to more than 100 million. In the comments section of the video, the keywords were "proud" and "awesome."

In the future, the Chinese political media discourse at the international level needs to change the narrative perspective. To do this, it is necessary to improve the logic of narrative in Chinese political media discourse using a narrative approach. We must combine general narratives with individual ones, macronarratives with micronarratives, comprehensive narratives with accurate narratives, and equal narratives with communicative narratives ^{[26, p. 17]}. Thus, it is possible to promote the international dissemination of China's opinion and strengthen the power of its national discourse. In addition to presenting Chinese history clearly, Chinese media should also adopt a proactive strategy to present the world in Chinese and use Chinese discourse to discuss social issues in Europe and the United States. The successful experience of the Russian RT media can be used in the discourse strategy. Under the slogan Question More, RT uses "my words" (words that meet Russia's interests) and "your logic" (leftist populism that has emerged in Western societies) to tell local news, thereby achieving excellent results ^{[24, p. 54]}. Emotional and plot methods of narration can also be used to enhance the influence of discourse ^{[18, p. 50]}. A good example is the CCTV documentary "Amazing China". The documentary combines the personal stories of teachers from the mountainous region of Guizhou Province, devoted to their duty, with the emotional signs of "dream" and "struggle" to show the achievements of China's national development. One of the teachers in the documentary said, "My dream is for every child to be able to get out of the mountainous region through education." Using emotional words such as "dream" activates the audience's empathy mechanism. Narration from the personal point of view of teachers makes macro policy more understandable. From the point of view of ordinary people, the persuasiveness and contagiousness of the discourse increase. The documentary has been shown more than 50 million times on foreign social media, and it can be said that it has achieved significant results in spreading the discourse.

Finally, in discursive practice, it requires attention to the cultural context of the audience. The formation of discourse is often limited and influenced by one's own language and culture, reflecting different ideologies and interests. Chinese scientist Hu Anjiang believes that in order to achieve the desired effect in the practice of discourse, it is necessary to treat the target culture with understanding and tolerance. In other words, when considering the audience of a discourse, it is necessary to respect their differences and adjust the strategy of translation and dissemination of the discourse in a timely manner. We try to use localized expressions to translate and explain political concepts. Explaining unfamiliar Chinese concepts using expressions familiar to a foreign audience, which helps to fit Chinese political discourse into the target cultural context. Complex political concepts need to be explained in detail. For example, the initiative "One Belt, One Road" translates as "One Belt, One Road" and is interpreted as the modern economic zones of the Great Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road, that is, a mutually beneficial project for international economic development proposed by China. CGTN channel has released a multilingual short video called "Keywords of China", in which "人类命运共同体" translates as "Community with a Shared Future for Mankind", taking into account the peculiarities of cultural contexts. The main content of the concept of "community" is divided into aspects such as a shared future and mutually beneficial cooperation in order to reduce the cultural discount. The video also explains the concept of "community" through collaboration within the framework of the "One Belt, One Road" project, which is an actual example. Because the construction of the China—Laos railway has led to an increase in employment in the regions along the route, it is the residents of the two countries who can share the fruits of development.

Conclusion

The purpose of writing this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of political discourse in the Chinese media. Based on the generalization of scientific literature in this field, the following conclusions can be drawn. The development of Chinese political media discourse in China and internationally is similar, and it has made a leap from unidirectional ideological communication to diversification and intellectualization in content, media, and distribution channels. However, at the linguistic level, the construction of discourse still faces such problems as a lack of lexical syntax, egocentric narrative strategies, limited compliance with audience requirements, and cultural contextual differences. Targeted changes in linguistic expressions, narrative perspectives, styles of discourse, and cultural adaptation are needed.

In addition, it should be noted that the development of political media discourse in China developed under the conditions of a socialist system with Chinese characteristics. The full participation of government agencies has provided resources and support for the formation of Chinese political media discourse, and has made the development of Chinese political media discourse extremely dependent on government agencies and official media. Russian scientist Lobanova T. N. has conducted a number of studies on Chinese political media discourse. She notes that the existence of a censorship mechanism restricts the freedom of discourse development ^{[9, p. 157]}. The content of the discourse largely depends on government policy and meets the needs of socialist modernization. There is a problem of formalism in the dissemination of discourse, and the content of the discourse needs to be improved. The international dissemination of discourse has insufficient impact on practice, and the egocentric attitude towards storytelling must be changed.

As a perspective for further research, we consider it necessary to apply the theory and methodology of linguistic discourse analysis to study the manifestation of specific political media discourses in their socio-historical contexts. Analyzing such linguistic features as vocabulary, syntax, semantics, rhetoric, etc., we identify the linguistic logic of political media discourse that influences public consciousness. Based on this, the nature of political media discourse will be understood in a deeper degree.