| Summary: | The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is to construct a large unified market, to
make full use of both international and domestic markets, and to enhance
the mutual understanding and trust of member nations of Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through cultural exchange, people-topeople ties and integration. Geographically adjacent to ASEAN countries
and is close to India and Bangladesh in South Asia, Thailand and Cambodia
in Southeast Asia, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of China is a key
littoral or southern gateway for China’s BRI. Foreign language planning is
an essential element for the social development of a country economically
and culturally. By reviewing the implementation of the foreign language
policy in Guangxi, I analyzed the multilingual opportunities and linguistic
challenges in the region, which shares the cross-border languages with its
neighboring countries in the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual community, to
reveal the sociological meaning of the foreign language policy beyond its
linguistic meaning, and propose an English-plus multilingual policy approach
toward the ASEAN countries to meet the current needs of communications
associated with the BRI.
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