Reconstruction of China's Image in Science Policy Translation

Science policies issued by governmental organizations are a significant lens to understand China's scientific and technological planning, and also an indispensable component of the scientific language. Compared with other political discourses, science policies have few official translations, drawing insufficient attention of translation studies. This research proposes an integrated analytical framework based on Critical Discourse Analysis so as to explore the translation of "The Outline of the Nationwide Scientific Literacy Action Plan (2021-2035)" by Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Based on the comparison with the original text as well as relevant official translations, this study finds that though the information of the original science policy has been maintained to a large extent, CSET's translation of core concepts and expressions isolated from specific contexts with ideological orientation, and intentional backgrounding of speech roles functioning as the Subject, both contribute to a misinterpreted image of China as a great power with hegemonic ambition and estranged from its people. Such a down-graded stereotype in the Western context is dramatically different from China's commitment to international scientific cooperation for the benefits of people throughout the world prominent in the self-shaped national image. This research concludes that science policy translation holds an ideological significance for the construction of China's national image, indispensible to studies on national image and S&T translation.