Crisis Communication on One Belt and One Road Initiative of China: A Geo-Political Change

Abstract

In the ancient past, much of East Asia and China was connected to different trading regions of the world through Silk Road. It got its name on the main export item of the then China: Silk. Now China has taken the initiative to rebuild the Silk Road through its OBOR initiative. OBOR has two components in the shape of two projects: over land SREB and a 21st century MSR. Later, merging these two projects under one canopy, OBOR has been termed as BRI of China. This study attempts to answer the research question: One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR) of China as the primer to a new geo-strategic hegemony for building the competitive Chinese world order would stabilize? A content analysis was performed on pivotal media coverage about OBOR. Since the ever first speech of the President of China, Mr. Xi Jinping in 2013, a media debate is there, on this Chinese initiative. OBOR is an effort to increase the regional connectivity to embrace a China oriented future. For them, this brighter future in the shape of an economic move for Chinese domination in the global affairs, while being the centre of global trade network. China would be celebrating its hundredth anniversary in 2049 and this is exactly the target date of completing the OBOR. A keyword analysis yielded through the speeches of Chinese President Mr. Xi Jinping on the global media networks alongwith the messages conveying Chinese aspirations of its coming out as the global economic lynch pin by the new Chinese geo-strategic hegemony under the canopy of connectivity and cooperation is the pivot of these well telecasted speeches. Keywords: Geo-strategy, Chinese geo-strategic hegemony, competitive Chinese world order, foreign policy, economic pivot, maritime, overland, port projects, infrastructure, connectivity, people to people contact.