Dissent or desire for more development? Win-win discourse and power dynamics in the narratives of the Belt and Road Initiative in Pakistan

The hegemonic discourse surrounding Chinese investments in Pakistan promotes a win–win situation. In this article, I argue that the hegemonic win–win discourse is crafted through the (re)production and recontextualization of multiple narratives. The narratives encompass such topics as bilateral relations, geopolitics, geoeconomics, and development and growth. The hegemonic discourse is constructed and disseminated by a power elite embedded within a network of institutions. The main finding of the study demonstrates that networks of the power elite and institutions wield discursive power that assimilate dissent within a “desire for more development” framework, thereby rendering dissent invisible and fostering a consensus that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a universally supported win–win scenario. A total of 2,895 articles published between 2013-20 in three English newspapers—The News, Dawn, and The Nation—were analyzed. Initially, a qualitative content analysis was conducted to examine the framing of CPEC. Subsequently, critical discourse analysis was employed to scrutinize hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses as well as the actors and institutions involved in discourse creation and the processes of co-opting dissent.