Political Cartoons’ Representation of Pak-China Relations on CPEC: A Multimodal Analysis

Abstract

The present research explored the political cartoons’ representation of Pak-China relations in the context of CPEC. This research is very significant as Pakistan and China have long standing friendship. As a result of this friendship China and Pakistan initiated China Pakistan Economic Corridor and China brought huge economic investments in Pakistan worth millions of dollars. On one hand CPEC strengthened the ties between Pakistan and China but on the other hand it made many neighboring counties and super powers conscious of the implications of this mega economic project. That is why it becomes a topic of utmost importance to explore that how Pakistani English language elite newspaper, Dawn, treats CPEC in political cartoons. Ledin and Machin’s (2020) and Machin and Myre (2007) frameworks for Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis were used to explore the visual and liguistic discourses and ideologies inherent in the political cartoons of Dawn on CPEC. The population of the study was political cartoons on CPEC published from January 2017 to December 2023. A purposive sample of four cartoons was selected for the analysis. The results of the study revealed that Dawn cautiously selected discourses to represent CPEC. Moreover it presented certain ideologies regarding CPEC and Pakistan’s current position in the context of CPEC. But these ideologies were presented in a subtle manner.