IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0293296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Community of Shared Future for Mankind: A study on the news discourse of environmental cooperation in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative

Author

Listed:
  • Niwen Liu
  • Megat Al Imran Yasin
  • Syed Agil Alsagoff
  • Chwee Fang Ng
  • Mengyu Li

Abstract

‘The Belt and Road Initiative’ (B&R) was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September and October 2013 and is now actively supported and participated by more than 100 countries and international organizations. B&R has become a hot topic all over the world since its inception. However, the environmental issues arising from this Initiative should not be underestimated. The concept of ‘A Community of Shared Future for Mankind’ is being promoted under the context of globalization, and there has been a lot of coverage in the mainstream media from various countries on the topic of environmental cooperation along B&R. This study takes a sample of reports on the ‘Belt and Road Environmental Cooperation’ from July 2021 to August 2022 and uses Van Dijk’s theory of news discourse analysis to analyze 20 articles in depth. This study attempts to explore the kind of thematic structure and lexical style that the mainstream newspapers from different countries use to report the environmental cooperation among the countries along B&R, also the implications of such a thematic structure and lexical style, and the characteristics of the discourse construction of mainstream newspapers in different countries. The research has found that B&R countries are used to holding a positive attitude to make a report and seek international cooperation. The headlines are mostly made up of nouns, and both direct and indirect quotations are used. Besides, to enhance the truth of the report, different number types are also involved; the theme structures are often made up of a two-level hierarchy.

Suggested Citation

  • Niwen Liu & Megat Al Imran Yasin & Syed Agil Alsagoff & Chwee Fang Ng & Mengyu Li, 2023. "A Community of Shared Future for Mankind: A study on the news discourse of environmental cooperation in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0293296
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0293296
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0293296&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0293296?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin, Boqiang & Bega, François, 2021. "China's Belt & Road Initiative coal power cooperation: Transitioning toward low-carbon development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    2. Yue Lu & Wei Gu & Ka Zeng, 2021. "Does the Belt and Road Initiative Promote Bilateral Political Relations?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(5), pages 57-83, September.
    3. Qipeng Sun & Yafang Geng & Fei Ma & Chao Wang & Bo Wang & Xiu Wang & Wenlin Wang, 2018. "Spatial–Temporal Evolution and Factor Decomposition for Ecological Pressure of Carbon Footprint in the One Belt and One Road," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    4. Jiang, Qichuan & Ma, Xuejiao & Wang, Yun, 2021. "How does the one belt one road initiative affect the green economic growth?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    5. Amy Krings & Tania M. Schusler, 2020. "Equity in sustainable development: Community responses to environmental gentrification," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 321-334, October.
    6. Muhammad Hafeez & Chunhui Yuan & Issam Khelfaoui & Almalki Sultan Musaad O & Muhammad Waqas Akbar & Liu Jie, 2019. "Evaluating the Energy Consumption Inequalities in the One Belt and One Road Region: Implications for the Environment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yiguo & Luo, Peng & Chang, Tsangyao, 2025. "Economic Nexus among the Belt and Road Initiative participating countries," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Cheng, Si & Wang, Banban, 2023. "Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on China's overseas renewable energy development finance: Effects and features," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1036-1048.
    3. Wang, Ailun & Si, Lulu & Hu, Shuo, 2025. "Does China's outward foreign direct investment improve carbon emission Efficiency? The heterogeneous impact of economic development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    4. Wang, Banban & Lin, Ping, 2022. "Whether China's overseas energy infrastructure projects dirtier or cleaner after the belt and road initiative?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Xing Zhou & Quan Guo & Ming Zhang, 2021. "Impacts of OFDI on Host Country Energy Consumption and Home Country Energy Efficiency Based on a Belt and Road Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, November.
    6. Wasi Ul Hassan Shah & Bo Wang & Rizwana Yasmeen, 2023. "Evaluating the role of banking efficiency, institutions and financial development for sustainable development: Implications for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Mingchen Duan & Yi Duan, 2023. "Research on Oil and Gas Energy Cooperation between China and Central-North Asian Countries under the “One Belt and One Road” Strategy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks & Viniece Jennings & Alessandro Rigolon, 2021. "Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Fei Wang & Zhi Dong & Jichang Dong, 2023. "Assessment of the Drivers and Effects of International Science and Technology Cooperation in Xinjiang in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Xia, Xiqiang & Du, Anna Min & Özkan, Oktay, 2025. "Digital financial inclusion, the belt and road initiative, and the Paris agreement: Impacts on energy transition grid costs," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Yang, Bo & Swe, Thidar & Chen, Yixuan & Zeng, Chunyuan & Shu, Hongchun & Li, Xin & Yu, Tao & Zhang, Xiaoshun & Sun, Liming, 2021. "Energy cooperation between Myanmar and China under One Belt One Road: Current state, challenges and perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PB).
    12. Yu, Jianping & Khattak, Shoukat Iqbal & Ahmad, Manzoor, 2025. "Enhancing sustainable development through digital economy and natural resource management in one belt one road countries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    13. Shi, Qiaoling & Zhao, Yuhuan & Qian, Zhiling & Zheng, Lu & Wang, Song, 2022. "Global value chains participation and carbon emissions: Evidence from Belt and Road countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    14. Shuhong Peng & Jing Qian & Xiuwei Xing & Jing Wang & Aliya Adeli & Shujie Wei, 2025. "Technological Cooperation for Sustainable Development Under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Sustainable Development Goals: Opportunities and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-27, January.
    15. Zhou, Danping & Zhang, Pan & Guo, Junhua, 2024. "Is one plus one greater than two? How Double target incentives stimulate green growth in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 340-350.
    16. Perry Sadorsky, 2020. "Energy Related CO 2 Emissions before and after the Financial Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-22, May.
    17. Xue, Jiashun & Poon, Jessie & Yang, Yu & Ji, Qiang, 2024. "Effect of green industrial policy on China's outward renewable energy investment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    18. Yanmei Li & Xiushan Bai, 2022. "How Can China and the Belt and Road Initiative Countries Work Together Responding to Climate Change: A Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Economic Spillover Effects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-17, August.
    19. Li, Fangmin & Yang, Tianle & Du, Min & Huang, Miao, 2023. "The development fit index of digital currency electronic payment between China and the one belt one road countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Chih-Wei & Thinh, Bui Tien, 2023. "Green development, climate risks, and cash flow: International evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0293296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.