批判地缘政治视角下的国家品牌实践——以海南自由贸易港为例

当前世界地缘政治经济格局发生深刻变化，全球化发展正面临重大挑战。在此背景下，建设海南自由贸易港既是中国深化改革开放的需要，也是在全球治理语境下中国积极重塑地缘政治经济格局的重要举措。以海南自贸港为对象，采用话语分析和网络民族志方法，探讨基于国家品牌的地缘政治实践，审视政府、媒体和国内外普通受众如何参与海南自贸港地理意义的（再）生产，并讨论了其背后的地缘政治运作机制。研究发现，国家品牌建设涉及国家、媒体和普通受众之间的互动，政府利用媒体工具构建宏大叙事，塑造国内外受众对海南自贸港的地理想象，进而支持和强化中国作为全球治理的建设者身份。然而，不同社会文化背景的受众群体形成了差异化的情感体验，普通受众对海南自贸港的认同等积极感知支持了国家身份叙事，质疑和感到威胁等情感则对自上而下和由内而外的话语营建提出挑战。不同行动者的建构和表征作用使国家品牌意义不断被想象、表达和重塑，导致基于国家品牌的地缘政治运作复杂化。

Nation Branding Practices from the Perspective of Critical Geopolitics: A Case Study of the Hainan Free Trade Port

Currently, the world is undergoing profound changes, and the rise of counter-globalization and trade protectionism is impacting global economic governance. The development of globalization faces major challenges. In this context, China proposed building the Hainan Free Trade Port in 2018, which was understood as both a necessity for China to deepen reform and open up and as an effort to actively reshape the geopolitical and economic environment in global governance. Taking the Hainan Free Trade Port and its geopolitical meaning as the research object, this study employed discourse analysis and netnography to explore geopolitical practices based on nation branding, examine how actors such as the government, media, and domestic and foreign audiences participate in the (re)production of the geo-meaning of the Hainan Free Trade Port, and discuss its geopolitical operational mechanisms in depth. The findings indicated the following: (1) The Chinese government utilized media tools for knowledge representation and production, disseminated grand narratives for domestic and foreign audiences, and worked to build national identity, emphasizing China’s role as a builder under regional and global systems. The audiences were not exclusively passive recipients of media messages, but participated in processing and reproducing them. (2) For domestic audiences, the national narrative inspired some audiences’ national awareness and legitimized Hainan's free trade port. Meanwhile, top-down meaning-making generated contradictory results in specific contexts and even triggered critical, bottom-up debates. For foreign audiences, owing to the political and cultural differences between China and the West, media messages were processed secondarily as a source of geographical imagination, which in turn shaped audiences’ subjective perceptions of the international geopolitical landscape. (3) Finally, the media played an important role in the brand construction process as an information “bridge.” On the one hand, the media served as a tool for the top-down and inside-out transmission of national narratives, creating a favorable public opinion environment for Hainan Free Trade Port’s construction. On the other hand, the media served as a medium for bottom-up and outside-in feedback of audience emotions. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that the delivery and feedback paths still need to be negotiated for a positive nation branding operation. The contribution of this research is reflected in two aspects: Through the theoretical introduction and case analysis of the geopolitical meaning of nation branding, it provides an initial exploration of related research in China; and, in the context of China’s participation in global governance, it provides a realistic reference for the steady progress of the Hainan Free Trade Port.