A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of News Discourses on China-Papua New Guinea and China-Solomon Islands Agricultural Cooperation

Abstract

Pacific Island nations are key participants in South South cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, with agricultural cooperation serving as a vital area for China’s practical collaboration with these states. Adopting Fairclough’s three dimensional critical discourse analysis model, this study constructs two small corpora consisting of 68 news reports (2018 2026) from Papua New Guinea’s Post Courier and three major Solomon Islands English language newspapers. With the AntConc tool, it compares media narratives of China PNG and China Solomon Islands agricultural cooperation across textual, discursive practice and social practice dimensions.The results reveal that while both media outlets adopt state centred narratives focusing on rice production and food security, they differ noticeably in framing. PNG media emphasizes technology driven industrial projects, aid and bilateral trade, whereas Solomon Islands media highlights livelihood support, sovereign equality and local public benefits. At the discursive practice level, indirect quotation is widely used. PNG reporting is dominated by official and elite voices, while Solomon Islands coverage incorporates ordinary citizens’ viewpoints. Such discursive variations stem from differences in agricultural conditions, bilateral cooperation maturity and regional geopolitics. This paper argues that Pacific Island local media are heterogeneous. Differentiated communication strategies should be adopted by China to deliver grassroots perspectives and manage geopolitical risks. It further demonstrates the value of corpus assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) for studies on South Pacific international cooperation.