Semiotization of Russian aggression against Ukraine in Chinese diplomatic discourse

Abstract

The article attempts to apply the methods of critical discourse research proposed by T. A. van Dijk to analyze the position of the Chinese side regarding the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, declared by senior officials of the People’s Republic of China in the period from the beginning of the large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 to the end of August, 2022. The structural, lexical-semantic and pragmatic aspects of the texts of the relevant documents posted on the official Internet resources of the state authorities of the People’s Republic of China are analyzed, taking into account the current international political context, the actual interests of China in the global and regional dimensions, through the prism of which it is considered appropriate to see, in particular, official Beijing’s rhetoric regarding possible ways to achieve peace. The author conducted a detailed analysis of the texts of the official statements of the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Yang Jiechi, as well as messages on the official Internet resources of the state authorities of the People’s Republic of China about their negotiations with foreign partners, where the issue of the war in Ukraine was raised. Based on the results of the analysis of fragments of the discourse, taking into account the current geopolitical context, the key discursive goals that the Chinese side is most likely trying to achieve are determined, namely: positive self-presentation of China as a peace-loving state, which, moreover, steadfastly adheres to the norms and principles of international law against the background of creating a negative the image of Western countries, first of all, its key geopolitical competitor – the USA – as states that contribute to the escalation of war for the sake of achieving their own geopolitical goals, an attempt to neutralize the negative image of the Russian Federation by promoting theses about the “historical causes” of the conflict as a justification for the fact of aggression.