The Concept of “Discursive Power” and the Transformation of Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping

Increasing China's international discursive power (guoji huayuquan) has been declared one of the foreign policy priorities under Xi Jinping. Drawing on Michel Foucault's works on discourse, Chinese theorists and practitioners have substantially modified their content, adapting Western concept of discourse to rising China's realities. This article analyzes the content of 'international discursive power' in the context of the academic debate on China's foreign policy transformation. The author focuses primarily on why this concept is of a strategic nature and why it, rather than soft power, now comes to the fore in describing China's interaction with the world. The article goes on to show how the issue of discursive power is linked to Beijing's plans for global governance reform and the internationalization of Chinese standards. As an example, the article looks at the discursive content of Chinese policy in the Arctic, which demonstrates how China is pursuing its interests not only on a material and practical level but also on an ideational level. The author concludes that the task of increasing 'discursive power' not only reflects the new quality of China's foreign policy but also responds to the increasingly complex external environment. In China's view, increasing 'discursive power' is a set of tools to help China move into the center of the world stage, actively shaping the agenda of international institutions and setting new “rules of the game.”

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