President’s Faculty Lecture: Dr. Yuezhi Zhao

China’s “Belt and Road Initiative:” A Critical Communication Perspective

In the past few years, China has been developing the “Belt and Road Initiative” as a response to Western-centric globalization. Referring to both the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road,” this initiative is reshaping Chinese foreign policies and trade relationships with major Eurasian and African countries. Focusing on communication as a key component, this lecture offers a critical analysis of this initiative’s geo-political economy origins, ideological and cultural underpinnings, as well as its possibilities and challenges.

Dr. Yuezhi Zhao (Ph.D., 1996) is Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Political Economy of Communication at the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. A recipient of the C. Edwin Baker Award and the Dallas Smythe Award for her contributions to scholarship on communication and democracy, and SFU’s Chris Dagg Award for International Impact, Dr. Zhao’s publications include Media, Market and Democracy in China, Communication in China, Global Communication, Communication and Global Power Shifts, and Global to Village. She currently co-directs the SFU-CUC Global Communication M.A. Double Degree Program.

The President’s Faculty Lecture Series is a public program aimed at showcasing outstanding SFU faculty and their research, and strengthening relationships between the university and the many communities we serve.