Abstract: The international promotion of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, limited research has examined the Chinese state’s specific framing of TCM in its promotion since the inception of the BRI. This article addresses the gap by conducting a thematic analysis of a sizeable corpus of official documents and state media reports on the international promotion and development of TCM from 2013 to 2022. The findings show that the promotion of TCM has been consistently politicised, with TCM being framed as both science and cultural heritage in a state of flux. The fluidity of framing indicates that these framings are deployed in various contexts and by different actors to advance the diverse strategic objectives of the Party-state.
Kuang Xianwen (Fri,) studied this question.