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Beyond the National Frame: Vernacular and English-Language Press Coverage of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in India and Nepal

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study looks at how China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is portrayed in Indian and Nepali print media, through a comparative content analysis of four leading newspapers: The Hindu and Dainik Jagran in India, and The Kathmandu Post and Kantipur Daily in Nepal.Based on structured coding of 200 news articles (2022-2024) across tone, theme, and narrative, the study asks how India's cautious, non-participant position and Nepal's more engaged, participant position towards the BRI shape the way their national media report on the same transnational initiative.The findings, confirmed through chi-square tests and Cramér's V, show that Indian coverage is considerably more critical and centred on strategic rivalry with China, often set against alternatives such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), while Nepali coverage is more evenly balanced between developmental optimism and governancerelated caution over debt and implementation.The study's central and more original contribution is a language-level divergence that a country-only comparison would miss: within India, the Hindi-language press is markedly more negative and rivalry-focused than its English-language counterpart, while within Nepal the pattern reverses, the Nepali-language press is the most favourably disposed outlet towards the BRI in the entire sample.Drawing on Media Systems Theory, framing theory, and geopolitical communication perspectives, the study argues that national policy orientation and language market work together, rather than separately, to shape how a single global initiative is narrated to different domestic publics.
DOI: 10.62047/css.2026.09.30.133
Institution: Shenzhen University
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214549918
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