A Study of Mainstream Malaysian Media’s Attitude and Its Changes on China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis (2018-2023)

The period of 2018 to 2023 saw both four changes in the Malaysian government and a geopolitical game between great powers in the Asian-Pacific region. Especially, 2020 saw both change in the Malaysian government as well as the outbreak of COVID-19—inevitably affecting Malaysia’s attitude towards the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) both politically and economically. Hence, this study collects BRI reports from the mainstream Malaysian media—New Straits Times (NST)—from 2018 to 2023. Using corpus-based critical discourse analysis as the research framework, this study builds two target corpora for the periods of 2018-2019 and 2020-2023, respectively. Through comparative analysis of the reports amount, thematic terms, and concordance lines, this study examines NST’s attitude towards the BRI and changes of attitude. The research findings firstly indicate a dynamic upward trend in NST’s coverage of the BRI; secondly, the content of NST’s reports shows a trend of diversification; and thirdly, while it expresses concerns about issues such as China’s rise and challenges to security in the Southeast Asian region, NST’s attitude towards the BRI remains positive overall, with no significant changes. This study explores Malaysia’s attitudes towards the BRI from the perspective of news discourse analysis—providing both a perspective for enhancing mutual understanding between China and Malaysia, and further understanding of the status of China-Malaysia cooperation under the BRI.