Globalization 5.0 Led by China: Powered by Positive Frames for BRI

Abstract

Globalization is the process of international integration of worldviews, products, ideas, cultures, peoples, and economies. Chapter 17 studies the effect of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on globalization, and how the Chinese government and state-owned media choose positive frames while promoting BRI to international communities. The author argues that the BRI, also known as the One Belt, One Road Initiative, proposed by China, with its massive infrastructure projects covering the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas, creates a new wave of globalization: Globalization 5.0. The new wave of globalization is more pragmatic and less ideology driven, more multilateral and less imperialistic than those that came before. This chapter is based on a framing analysis of over 3000 Chinese and English webpages, and the author’s systematic observation through organizing Asian business conferences and participating in social media discussions. Framing analysis reveals that five frames are being used by the Chinese government and state-run media: development; mutual respect and mutual trust; the Ancient Silk Road story; actions speak louder than words; and China as a partner, not a colonialist, in which its fundamental approach when selling the BRI to international communities is to implement the frame as "win-win."