1st Edition
The Belt and Road Initiative and Australian Mainstream Media
This book focuses on Australian mainstream media narratives about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from 2013 to 2020. Set against the background of Sino-Australian relations and taking into account the different media systems of China and Australia, this book also critically investigates the Chinese public diplomacy narratives of the BRI. Drawing on my analysis and semi-structured interviews with prominent experts in this area, the book addresses an important but under-explored question: how have Australian mainstream media narratives portrayed the BRI of the Chinese Government from 2013 to 2020?
This book fills a gap regarding the portrayal of the BRI in Australian mainstream media and provides new insights into the reasons for narrative shifts in the coverage of the BRI. More concretely, the book finds that the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI were not explained well by Chinese officials, thus allowing Australian journalists and commentators to project their own negative, fearful narratives of China onto the BRI project, particularly from 2017 onwards. More importantly, this book argues that the Australian Federal Government’s policy towards China had a significant impact on the Australian media’s coverage of the BRI; that the media clearly followed the Australian Federal Government’s lead, and not vice versa. Thus, in many ways, Australian mainstream media narratives of the BRI have had a similar outcome as China’s ostensibly much more restrictive and propagandistic state-dominated media system.
Noticeably, this book not only has academic significance in the international research community but also holds practical importance in the real world, benefiting Australian business leaders, media professionals, think tank specialists, and policymakers.
1 Introduction 2 Understanding Sino-Australian Relations: Politics, Trade, and the BRI 3 The Chinese Government’s Public Diplomacy Narratives of the BRI 4 The Narratives of the BRI in the Australian Mainstream Media 5 The Narratives of the BRI in Australian Opinion Journalism 6 Understanding the Narrative Shift of the BRI in Australian Mainstream Media 7 Conclusion. Appendices
Biography
Jon Yuan Jiang is an independent scholar and an English, Mandarin, and Russian speaker. He has published over 80 articles and has been interviewed 70 times. He has been recognized in Australia and internationally as a leading authority on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, China-Russia relations, and China-Australia relations.
“An intriguing analysis of how the mainstream Australian media’s portrayal of China’s signature economic and diplomatic initiative of the last decade shifted, with little objective justification, from ‘opportunity’ to ‘threat’. Dr Jon Yuan Jiang’s book is scrupulously academic in tone, but not flattering – and rightly so – either to the Coalition Governments of the day nor the journalists who, largely uncritically, followed their lead. The fourth estate at its best this was not.”
Gareth Evans, Australian Foreign Minister 1988-96
“The Belt and Road Initiative continues to evolve, as Dr Jiang amply explains – from an initially grand but slightly puzzling vision, to take its place within the suite of Global Governance reforms that Beijing has developed, taking its place as the prime platform for economic weaponization, alongside the Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the Global Civilisational Initiative. Naturally, as his book charts, understanding by media and other China-watchers has evolved as BRI’s ambition has grown. But in recent years this coverage has been made more challenging by the rapid reduction in overseas media presence in China and by Beijing’s effective Wolf Warrior diplomacy, but less combative due to the reduction in China’s own capacity to maintain BRI funding.”
Rowan Callick, Australian/British journalist, author and speaker
“While the focus of Dr Jiang’s observations of the Australian Mainstream Media has been China’s Belt and Road Initiative, there are valuable insights into how the discourse on broader Australia/China relations are impacted by the media. This is important work and takes a hard look at the way important issues are covered by the media in Australia.”
Peter Arkell, Managing Director of Carrington Day, and convenor and non-executive director of the GE Morrison Institute
“I was part of the first contacts the Australian Government had with China on the One Belt One Road initiative. It was fascinating to read Dr Jiang’s account of Australia’s attitudes to OBOR and how OBOR itself has changed since its inception, both in content and foreign policy significance.”
David Dukes (former Australian diplomat in China)
