Wu Peng: Enhancing the Effectiveness of International Communication Through the Construction of Discourse Systems
The power of communication determines influence, and the power of discourse determines the initiative. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed a series of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new assertions on strengthening and improving international communication work. Guided by these, we have vigorously promoted international communication by upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground, streamlined the systems for domestic and international communication, actively promoted Chinese culture "going out," and effectively carried out guidance and struggle in international public opinion. As a result, the cohesion of the Chinese nation and the influence of Chinese culture have been significantly strengthened, and the country's soft power has continued to improve. At the same time, it must be noted that the U.S.-led West utilizes its advantage in international communication platforms to launch various "public opinion wars" and "cognitive wars" against our country, slandering and smearing China's national image, and creating many topics and expressions that turn black into white [1]. It is becoming increasingly important to break the discourse monopoly of the U.S.-led West, so that the world can hear China's voice, understand China's reasoning, and accept China's concepts.
The "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," deliberated and adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, proposed: "Improve the systems and mechanisms for international communication, innovate communication carriers and methods, strengthen the construction of key bases, enhance the international communication capacity of mainstream media, comprehensively elevate international discourse power, tell China's stories well, and present a credible, lovable, and respectable image of China. Strengthen regional and country studies, and improve the effectiveness of international communication." This is an important deployment made by the CPC Central Committee facing the "15th Five-Year Plan" period to solidly advance the construction of a leading cultural power. To improve international communication effectiveness, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a Chinese discourse system with academic support, complete structure, and precise expression, continuously improve narrative capabilities, and form international discourse power commensurate with our country's comprehensive national strength and international status.
Consolidating academic support. On the surface, international communication is the cross-border transmission of information; at a deeper level, it is the presentation of values and the exchange of ideas. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed to "build a strategic communication system with distinct Chinese characteristics, focusing on improving international communication influence, the appeal of Chinese culture, the affinity of China's image, the persuasiveness of Chinese discourse, and the guiding power of international public opinion." To achieve this goal, the construction of a discourse system must be accelerated. The essence of discourse system construction lies in forming a knowledge system rooted in the Chinese position, with academic logic as its sinews and international expression as its form, so that Chinese practice has a stable explanatory framework in the global context. Chinese civilization has long emphasized that "rhetoric must be grounded in sincerity" [2], valuing the use of reason to gain trust and sincerity to establish one's words; this provides an important reference for how contemporary Chinese narratives can maintain sincerity, rationality, and logical consistency. Academic support can enhance the explanatory power of narratives, moving communication from information presentation to meaning generation, and from the recounting of experience to the expression of thought. Facing diverse audiences and complex issues, Chinese narratives need to conduct more comprehensive and accurate theoretical and systematic expressions around major themes such as Chinese-path modernization, new quality productive forces, and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. This ensures that rich practical experiences are converted into intellectual resources that can be understood across cultures. We must not only tell the stories of the material achievements of China's development and clearly demonstrate the intellectual and spiritual power behind that development—extracting and presenting the spiritual hallmarks of Chinese civilization—but also be adept at using "identifying concepts" [3] to participate actively in the creation of global issues, forming Chinese expressions in the international public opinion field, clarifying China’s position, and proposing Chinese initiatives.
Advancing dialogue and exchange. This is an important way to enhance the affinity and intellectual penetration of international communication. Currently, the world's changes unseen in a century are accelerating, local conflicts and turbulence occur frequently, global problems are intensifying, and the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. At the same time, major propositions proposed by our country, such as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, have aroused strong responses and resonance in the international community. Countries around the world expect to understand China more deeply and hope to hear China's voice on major international issues. The key to letting the world understand China lies in using effective communication to eliminate cognitive bias and increase value identification. This requires responding to international concerns with rational and clear expressions, and narrowing psychological distances through narrative methods rich in emotional warmth, bridging the understanding gap through exchanges at the intellectual level. Dialogue and exchange emphasize an open posture toward the world, increasing understanding through dialogue and enhancing mutual trust through exchange, so that international communication is no longer limited to the expression of positions but becomes a process of interaction of meaning and the symbiosis of consensus. Facing the increasingly segmented and diverse characteristics of global audiences, Chinese discourse needs to focus more on realistic observations and life experiences in its expression. Through concrete and vivid scene presentations, perceptible and knowable practical experiences, and narrative methods with a sense of the times, Chinese concepts can be more easily perceived and accepted. Improving the effectiveness of communication and understanding depends both on the systematic and solid knowledge support provided by think tanks and academic institutions, and on the active participation of groups such as the youth in cross-cultural expression, using an internationalized language system to tell China's experiences and thoughts, and increasing the international community's understanding and identification with China through continuous dialogue.
Coalescing consensus on cooperation. The significance of communication is not only reflected in the cross-border flow of information but also increasingly manifests as the encounter, understanding, and mutual inspiration between different civilizations. Civilizations become colorful through exchange and rich through mutual learning. To improve the effectiveness of international communication, we should pay more attention to leveraging the unique value of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, promote mutual understanding through cultural communication, and continuously accumulate a foundation for consensus in the dialogue between different civilizations. Looking back at history, the foreign interactions of Chinese civilization have always used an open mind, a peaceful attitude, and a spirit of seeking knowledge as their foundation, winning the world's trust with wisdom and sincerity. It is precisely in continuous exchange and mutual learning that Chinese civilization has continuously enriched itself and made important contributions to the development of human civilization. In today's era where multipolarity and informatization are intertwined, international audiences are more concerned with whether concepts have universal significance and whether experiences have reference value. Mutual learning among civilizations can help international communication break through the limitations of one-way output, allowing Chinese stories and world experiences to generate new understandings and possibilities through interaction. Adapting to the trends of mobilization, socialization, and visualization in the field of international communication, we must accelerate the construction of a discourse system that integrates Chinese and foreign elements, innovate the discourse of network communication, tell China's stories in ways that audiences are happy to accept and easy to understand, use sincere communication to present the modern value of Chinese concepts, and use vivid practice to display the developmental path of China's explorations. This ensures that the communication has both intellectual depth and emotional warmth, allowing the world to understand China while also considering various possibilities for future development through Chinese experience.
Communication is the extension of civilization, and discourse is the form of thought. Improving the effectiveness of international communication through the construction of a discourse system is an inherent requirement for building a leading cultural power and an important way to promote Chinese-path modernization toward the world. International communication in the New Era should increase understanding and coalesce consensus through "harmony in diversity" [4], gather strength and deepen identification through mutual knowledge and respect, and explain concepts and convey values through exchange and mutual learning. This will allow the power of reason and the charm of civilization to complement each other, ensuring that China's voice becomes clearer, more gentle, and more lasting in the chorus of world civilizations.