Contradicting Narratives on the Spirit of the Laws: Cognitive Discourse Analysis on Narratives in China and Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The aim of the research is to deconstruct communicative narratives within speeches of China’s President Xi Jinping thus identifying notions for common ground in cooperation with the European Union, as well as notions that contradicts the spirit of law of Europe. The scope of research materials includes speeches of Xi Jinping addressed in a particular format – cooperation platform with Central and Eastern European countries “17 + 1”. This cooperation platform has been chosen as a discourse frame because of its rich content (China addresses 17 countries with various themes and focuses of importance). Research method utilised is cognitive discourse analysis (CODA) which focuses on those properties of discourse that are accounted for in terms of cognitive concepts. CODA allows to identify models of perceptions how cooperation and attitude toward common agreements should be formed. Several communicative narratives were identified that directly contradicts to common sense of Europe how cooperation and agreements should be maintained. Most important to mention are: 1) narrative of visible hand – as a counter argument on liberal economics – ability to interrupt free market at any situation; 2) narrative of silver bullet – a twin narrative of visible hand only in domain of political decisions; it includes an assumption that effective cooperation with China as a leader within community implies quick solutions to any decision-making problems via political intervention in business; 3) narrative of inclusive globalisation – includes expectation from all partners to respect deviations from democratic norms and western liberal values.