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Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) 
ISSN (online): 2766-791X 
ISSN (print):    2770-6354 

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A Corpus-based Contrastive Analysis of Sino-U.S. National Defense White Papers: 
Images, Problems and Strategies 

Lan WANG1, Junchao WANG2

1School of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China 
melwang567567@gmail.com 

2Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, GDUFS, China, 201510091@oamail.gdufs.edu.cn 
Abstract 
The English translations of China’s national defense white papers play crucial roles in conveying China’s defense and military 
policies to the international community. Their accuracy and authenticity directly impact foreign readers’ understanding of 
China’s defense policies and shape their perception of China. However, previous English translations have been problematic, 
with lengthy and difficult-to-read texts, excessive and complex nouns, and a writing style that does not conform to English 
conventions. This paper explores the specific translation problems, analyzes the underlying causes, and proposes feasible 
translation strategies. Using China’s National Defense in the New Era (CNDNE) and 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy 
(2022 NDS) as sample texts, we established corpora of the national defense white papers for the two nations. With the 
assistance of Weiciyun and AntConc, we conducted a contrastive analysis between the original Chinese discourse and its 
English translation, as well as between the Chinese and American defense white papers. The analysis focused on high-
frequency words and subjects to explore the images of the two countries constructed by each national defense white paper. 
Furthermore, this study compared the features of CNDNE and 2022 NDS using AntConc and established a parallel corpus of 
CNDNE by aligning sentence pairs through Tmxmall. We then utilized CUC_Paraconc to analyze the words and sentence 
structures in the Chinese and English versions of CNDNE, identifying translation problems in the translation and providing 
strategies. The findings provide insights, directions, and methods for the writing, translation and post-editing of China’s 
defense white paper and open new avenues for further research. 
Keywords: national defense white paper, corpus translation studies, contrastive analysis, translation problems and strategies 
1. Introduction
National defense is essential for the peace and development of a country. Many countries release national defense white papers 
to maintain domestic stability, showcase their defense capabilities and strategies to the international community, and convey 
their intentions for international security cooperation. In recent years, China’s comprehensive national strength and military 
power have attracted the attention of foreign governments regarding China’s defense policies. Therefore, the significance of 
China’s national defense white papers and their translations for foreign governments and the public to understand China’s 
defense situation and policies is self-evident. However, the English translations of defense white papers suffer from various 
problems, such as lengthy sentences, numerous and difficult-to-understand nouns, and a writing style that does not conform 
to English conventions. These problems often discourage English readers from completing the entire defense white paper, or 
if they do, they may struggle to grasp certain concepts or even misunderstand them, leading to unfavorable impressions of 
China. This study aims to explore and summarize the specific causes of these issues and proposes targeted translation 
strategies, offering inspirations to improve the translations of China’s defense white papers. It also provides insights and 
methods for scholars engaging in future research on national defense white papers. 
2. Literature Review
2.1 Research on White Paper 
White Paper is an official document issued by a government or organization that aims to explain specific issues, policies, or 
provide relevant information and recommendations. Typically, it involves comprehensive analysis and explanation of a 
particular topic, to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of the specific issue and offer policy advice or action plans. 
The Chinese white papers are compiled and released by the Information Office of the State Council, with the translation into 
multiple languages by the Foreign Language Press, a subsidiary of the Foreign Language Bureau (Li, 2020). However, there 
is a limited body of literature focused on the translation of Chinese white papers, and the existing literature predominantly 
concentrates on the words in English translations of Chinese white papers (with the exception of Yang, 2018; Kim, 2019) and 
those of different countries (e.g., Dou, 2012; Bertazzo, 2012; Lee, 2013; Seo, 2019; Donadelli, 2021). 
As one type of White Paper, the National Defense White Paper is published by the defense department or military institutions, 
intending to elaborate on a country’s defense policy, military strategy, and the development planning of military forces. It 



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usually encompasses aspects such as the assessment of national security threats, formulation of military strategies, and the 
organization, equipment, and development of military forces. Its purpose is to communicate a nation’s defense policy and 
military intentions to domestic and international audiences, including the general public, military peers, and the international 
community. China’s defense white papers include various types of white papers related to defense released by the State 
Council Information Office, such as cybersecurity, space, the Taiwan question, nuclear security, and Asia-Pacific security 
cooperation. The focus of this study is on the white papers published on the official English website of the Ministry of National 
Defense, as they are the most easily accessible and significant materials about national defense for foreign audiences. Since 
2010, the Ministry of National Defense has published four defense white papers: China’s National Defense in 2010, The 
Diversified Employment of China’s Armed Forces (2013), China’s Military Strategy (2015) and the latest China’s National 
Defense in the New Era (2019).  
Since the 1990s, the broad categorization of U.S. defense white papers includes four main types: the National Security Strategy 
(by the White House), the National Defense Strategy (by the U.S. Department of Defense), the Report of the Quadrennial 
Defense Review (by the U.S. Department of Defense), and the National Military Strategy (by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff). The publication of these white papers provides information about U.S. defense to the American public and U.S. 
allies, playing a role in maintaining public support and fostering cooperation among allied nations and having its wording 
features (Yu, 2016).  
This study selected China’s National Defense in the New Era ( , CNDNE) and the 2022 National 
Defense Strategy (2022 NDS), released on July 24, 2019 and October 27, 2022, respectively. This ensures comparability 
between the white papers of these two nations as both of them were released by the National Defense authorities. 
2.2 Translations of China’s National Defense White Papers  
To effectively convey China’s national defense policies and enhance its international discourse rights, the translations of the 
national defense white papers should strive for accurate word selection that aligns with the knowledge and cultural background 
of the target audience. Furthermore, the General Office of the Communist Party of China issued a notice on solving prominent 
problems of formalism and reducing the burden on the comrades ( ), 
calling for the promotion of a concise, practical, and innovative writing style, and resolutely reducing the length of documents 
to prevent verbosity. However, the English translations of China’s national defense white papers are troubled with numerous 
problems (see Huang, 2004; Zheng, 2014; Ji & Xu, 2016; Wang, 2019; Tan & Lu, 2022) and fail to overcome the formalism 
problems. Existing research has come up with some principles for translation (Yang, 2014; Wu & Ye, 2015). They do not 
directly address the specific challenges faced in the translation of national defense white papers. Further research and 
collaboration between the white paper editors, translation teams, and experts in translation studies may be necessary to develop 
effective strategies for enhancing the translation quality and effectiveness of these important documents. 
2.3 Corpus Research 
Corpus research includes the construction of large-scale and multilingual corpora, and specialized corpora, as well as the use 
of monolingual or bilingual corpora to study vocabulary usage features, translator style, translation strategies, translation 
criticism, and translation and multimodality. Wang (2008) found, based on corpus research, that translated Chinese exhibits 
features such as lower degree of lexical variation, lower lexical density, explicitation of function words, explicitation of 
referential expressions, and increased frequency of common words compared to original Chinese. Xu (2016) suggested that 
translated English shows characteristics of explicitation in cohesion and repetition of content words between sentences 
compared to original English. Hu (2017) proposed that it is possible to describe translator style based on statistical analyses 
of relevant translation facts and analyze the reasons or constraining factors for the formation of translator style from both 
translator-specific and non-translator-specific factors. Wang (2015) pointed out that the research findings of parallel corpora, 
such as part-of-speech distribution, sentence length, and structural capacity, can be directly applied to the teaching process to 
enhance translation learning efficiency and effectiveness. Li (2021) developed a multilingual parallel corpus of “Xi Jinping: 
The Governance of China” and indicated its application value in the construction of multilingual parallel corpora, extraction 
of multilingual terminology, translation teaching, and machine translation. Current corpus research in China primarily focuses 
on vocabulary, with limited involvement at the syntactic level and scarce attention to discourse. Furthermore, most of the 
current corpus translation research revolves around corpus construction, literary translation studies, and overviews of corpus 
research, with fewer studies on the translation of political texts, and even rarer research specifically on the defense white 
paper. 
With the aid of corpus tools, scholars in the international translation community have conducted various studies, such as the 
creation of large corpora, corpus comparisons, and analysis of high-frequency words, to investigate text features, translation 



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problems, and translation strategies. Corpus research in the translation industry is applied in various fields, including 
translation training, translation education, translation work, and the development of corpus technologies. Baker conducted 
translator-style research based on corpora, and the analysis process typically does not consider the corresponding source texts. 
However, this study focuses on the investigation of translation style, so the characteristics of the source text are taken into 
consideration in the research. Christodouloupoulos and Steedman (2015) created a massively parallel corpus based on 100 
translations of the Bible and described the potential of the Bible as a corpus for natural language processing. Frankenberg-
Garcia (2021 found that keyword analysis not only reiterates known problems of discourse in machine translation such as 
lexical inconsistency and pronoun resolution but can also provide valuable insights regarding contextual aspects of translated 
discourse. Giampieri (2020) held that corpora allow one to grasp word use in contexts, find collocations or fixed expressions 
and deliver more fine-grained translation works. 
Although the use of corpus technology in the field of translation has many benefits, some papers point out the drawbacks of 
excessive reliance on corpus technology. Cho (2012 believed that after obtaining information by these tools, researchers 
have to return to the context. Giampieri (2020) believed that when we use corpora to help us translate, we may feel 
overwhelmed by Internet data and “distracted” by corpus evidence. Du and Chen (2022 made a bibliometric analysis of 
political discourse in translation studies from 1990 to 2020, revealing eight research themes, namely, linguistic analysis, 
ideology and manipulation, power embodied in political communication, interpreting and critical discourse analysis (CDA), 
the recontextualization of political discourse in media discourse, diplomatic translation, the representation of political 
speeches in news translation, and conflict and politics. Wang and Feng (2018) used corpus tools to identify high-frequency 
keywords in political discourse, analyze patterns of their translation and reveal how ideology is decontextualized. Pan (2020) 
used both comparable and parallel corpora, and found three types of shifts regularly made by Chinese government-affiliated 
translation institutions, namely shifts in interacting with readers, in representing actions, and in identifying participants. 

3. The Construction of Images of the National Defense White Papers  
3.1 High-frequency Words  

3.1.1 High-frequency Words in the Original CNDNE 
By using Weiciyun to segment CNDNE in the original, we can identify high-frequency words that play an important role in 
constructing the content of the text. Studying these words helps enhance our understanding of the key content and intentions 
of the white paper. In this study, we excluded function words from the high-frequency ones and retained content words such 
as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The top 30 high-frequency words are presented in Table 1. 

Table 1. High-frequency words in the original CNDNE (Top 30  

Rank Word  Freq. Rank Word  Freq. 

1  185 16  40 
2  94 17  38 
3  92 18  37 
4  71 19  33 
5  68 20  32 
6  67 21  30 
7  63 22  29 
8  62 23  29 
9  52 24  28 
10  52 25  28 
11  51 26  28 
12  50 27  28 
13  43 28  26 
14  42 29  26 
15  42 30  25 



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As can be seen from Table 1, the high-frequency nouns are  (army),  (country),  (strategy),  (military), 
 (armed forces),  (defense expenditure),  (national defense),  (strength),  (new era),  (world), 

 (peace),  (system),  (task), and  (mechanism), showing that in the new era of Chinese socialism (since the 
19th CPC National Congress held on October 18, 2017), China attaches importance to military strategy and national defense 
force, calls for world peace, and pays attention to the construction of military systems and the planning of defense tasks, 
expenses and mechanisms. High-frequency verbs are  (develop),  (build),  (maintain),  (cooperate),  
(organize),  (safeguard),  (promote),  (strengthen),  (carry out),  (adhere to),  (combat), and 

 (train), which show China’s national defense actions in the new era. The high-frequency words portray China as an active, 
constructive and friendly country that promotes development, construction and world peace and strengthens national security 
and international cooperation. 

3.1.2 High-frequency Words in the English Version of CNDNE  
Using AntConc, we conducted a word frequency analysis of the English version of CNDNE. We excluded function words 
from the high-frequency words and retained content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The top 30 high-
frequency words are shown in Table 2. 

Table 2. High-frequency words in the English version of CNDNE (Top 30  

Rank Word Freq. Rank Word Freq. 

1 China 264 16 training 43 
2 military 171 17 joint 42 
3 defense 144 18 operations 42 
4 security 128 19 PLA 39 
5 forces 109 20 system 35 
6 national 88 21 combat 34 
7 armed 70 22 era 33 
8 strategic 70 23 support 32 
9 new 65 24 build 31 
10 development 63 25 peace 30 
11 countries 59 26 regional 28 
12 international 56 27 world 28 
13 expenditure 52 28 country 27 
14 force 48 29 stability 26 
15 cooperation 43 30 capabilities 25 

According to Table 2, high-frequency nouns are defense, peace, force (s), development, countries, expenditure, cooperation, 
training, operations, peace, world, stability, and capabilities, which show that China attaches importance to military building 
and strengthens training to improve national defense capability, hopes for national security and stability and world peace, and 
highlights the development and international cooperation. Compared with those of the Chinese version, the top 30 high-
frequency words in the English version are mostly nouns, instead of verbs, to some extent indicating that when it was translated 
from Chinese to English, the parts of speech of China’s National Defense in the New Era have partially changed, especially 
from verbs to nouns. It makes the white paper more formal and solemn, and its narrative more objective. 

3.1.3 High-frequency Words in 2022 U.S. NDS 
With the help of AntConc, the high-frequency words in 2022 NDS can be analyzed. After removing function words, the top 
30 high-frequency words are obtained, as shown in Table 3.  

Table 3. High-frequency Words in the 2022 NDS (Top 30  

Rank Word Freq. Rank Word Freq. 
1 department 117 16 strategy 29 
2 partners 63 17 ability 28 
3 deterrence  59 18 nuclear 28 



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4 force 58 19 states 28 
5 allies 56 20 support 28 
6 capabilities 54 21 aggression 27 
7 defense 54 22 other 27 
8 military 52 23 strategic 27 
9 PRC 41 24 national 26 
10 security 38 25 united 23 
11 joint 35 26 change 22 
12 threats 33 27 conflict 21 
13 competitors 32 28 integrated 21 
14 forces 31 29 strengthen 21 
15 challenges 29 30 advantages 20 

According to Table 3, high-frequency words are partners, deterrence, force, allies, capabilities, defense, military, PRC, 
security, threats, strategy, conflict, and advantages. We can see that the 2022 NDS repeatedly mentions the “threat” of China’s 
development to the United States. Also, the ideological opposition and conflicts of interest among countries are depicted, 
which could have a subtle and gradual impact on the thinking of the American people and its allies, leading the public to 
regard China as a threat. The keywords also show that the United States seeks to strengthen military alliances and partnerships, 
aiming to maintain its advantages and deter other countries. 

3.1.4 Contrastive Analysis of CNDNE and 2022 NDS 
In both the English Version of CNDNE and 2022 NDS, we find high-frequency words such as “national”, “security”, “force 
(s)”, “military”, “capabilities”, “joint”, and “defense”. With AntConc, the collocations of these high-frequency words and 
their corresponding paragraphs in the two defense white papers are searched, revealing some differences. Figure 1 and Figure 
2 illustrate the word “military”. In the former, the high-frequency collocations of “military” include “the military and the 
government”, “the military and the people”, “military training”, “military exchanges and cooperation” and “military 
development”. In the latter, the high-frequency collocations of “military” include “military advantage (s)”, “military power”, 
“military action”, “military capability” and “military preparation”. 
By examining the paragraphs where these high-frequency collocations appear, we can observe that China is striving to develop 
its military, enhance military training, maintain a good relationship between the armed forces and the government as well as 
the people, engage in military cooperation with other countries. This conveys that China is focused on the development of the 
military to safeguard national security, maintain international cooperation, and defend the country and its people. It 
demonstrates that China’s national defense is defensive rather than offensive. On the other hand, the United States repeatedly 
mentions deterring other countries to ensure the future sustainability of its military advantage and protect its international 
military status. The emphasis is on military preparation. This portrays the United States’ efforts to maintain its international 
hegemonic position. But rather than focusing on its military development to become stronger, the U.S. diverts significant 
attention to deterring other nations. It reflects the zero-sum mindset of the U.S. in problem-solving. 

 



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Figure 1. High-frequency collocations of “military” in the English version of CNDNE 

 

 
Figure 2. High-frequency collocations of “military” in the 2022 NDS 

In the top 30 high-frequency words of the English version of CNDNE and the 2022 NDS, there are also unique high-frequency 
words for each text. For example, in the English version of CNDNE, words such as “development”, “countries”, 
“international”, “cooperation”, “training”, “system”, “era”, “support”, “build”, “peace”, “world” and “stability” cannot be 
found among the top 30 high-frequency words of the 2022 NDS. These words depict a pragmatic and moderate image of 
China in the new era that emphasizes the importance of development, construction, international cooperation, world peace 
and stability. Among them, the word “cooperation” appears 43 times, as shown in Figure 3. Some of its collocations include 
“developing friendly cooperation with all countries”, “strengthening international cooperation in arms control and non-
proliferation”, “China’s participation in international space cooperation”, “enhancing trust among regional countries, China-
Russia cooperation”, “the China-US relationship based on coordination, cooperation, and stability”, “cooperation with 
ASEAN countries”, “a China-Europe partnership for peace, growth, reform, and civilization, and maritime security 
cooperation”. The above examples showcase China’s recent diplomatic initiatives and diplomatic goals, demonstrating 



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China’s commitment to strengthening friendly and trustworthy cooperation with other countries while maintaining a policy 
of non-alignment with any nation. 

 

 
Figure 3. Collocations of “cooperation” in the English version of CNDNE 

In the 2022 U.S. NDS, there are unique words including “partners”, “deterrence”, “allies”, “threats”, “competitors”, 
“challenges”, “nuclear”, “support”, “aggression”, “conflict”, “integrated”, “strengthen”, and “advantages”. These words 
present a belligerent and aggressive image of the United States that perceives rapidly developing countries as threats, seeks 
to strengthen military alliances to deter these nations and emphasizes conflict rather than cooperation. Among them, the word 
“partners” appears 63 times, as shown in Figure 4. The collocation of “Allies and partners” appears 47 times, and the verbs 
associated with it include “to reinforce robust deterrence”, “to modernize denial capabilities”, “to advance regional security 
goals that implement the higher-level aims of integrated deterrence”, “to ensure power projection in a contested environment”, 
“to deter, defend, and build resilience” and “will increasingly face the challenge of deterring two major powers with modern 
and diverse nuclear capabilities-the PRC and Russia”. In the 2022 U.S. NDS, the U.S. Allies and partners plan to focus on 
deterring other countries. 

 



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Figure 4. Collocations of “partners” in the 2022 NDS 
3.2 Subject Analysis 
High-frequency subjects in the English translation of CNDNE and the 2022 NDS are shown in Table 4. This analysis reflects 
the respective word preferences and linguistic characteristics of the two texts. By conducting a comparative analysis, it can 
provide some references for modifying China’s defense white papers. 

Table 4. Top 10 subjects in the English translation of CNDNE and the 2022 NDS 

Rank CNDNE 2022NDS 
Subject Freq. Subject Freq. 

1 China 92 we 89 
2 armed forces 46 Department 73 
3 they 31 PRC 12 
4 it 26 it 8 
5 PLA 23 deterrence 8 
6 expenditure 17 Russia  8 
7 PAP 14 NDS 8 
8 efforts 7 strategy 7 
9 this 6 Campaigning 6 
10 countries 6  The United States 5 

The English translation of CNDNE consists of 553 sentences, with 92 sentences using “China” as the subject. On average, 
there is one sentence with “China” as the subject every 6 sentences. On the other hand, the 2022 NDS comprises 377 sentences, 
with 89 sentences starting with “we” as the subject. On average, there is one sentence starting with “we” every 4 sentences. 
The frequent use of “China” as the subject in the CNDNE translation contributes to a more objective narrative and reflects 
China’s independent and non-aligned foreign policy. Conversely, the predominant use of “we” as the subject in the 2022 NDS 
enhances the subjective narrative and emphasizes the role of issuing the NDS-rallying allies and partners under the collective 
pronoun “we” to consolidate and maintain its international hegemonic status. However, the excessive repetition of “China” 
as the subject in the English translation of CNDNE results in a lack of sentence variation. To address this, it is recommended 
to use pronouns such as “it” as a substitute for “China” to bring more diversity to sentence structure. 
3.3 Summary 
The two white papers depict contrasting images of China and the United States. China’s image, as portrayed in its white paper, 
is characterized as active, constructive, and friendly. It emphasizes China’s focus on development, construction, and world 
peace, as well as its efforts to strengthen national defense and enhance international cooperation. On the other hand, the image 
of the United States presented in its white paper is portrayed as bellicose, aggressive, and viewing rapidly developing nations 
as threats. It emphasizes its so-called “priority” and opposition, highlighting the United States’ efforts to deter other countries 
and maintain its first position by forming alliances with allies and partners. 
4. Translation Problems and Strategies in the English Translation of CNDNE 
The Chinese version of CNDNE has a total of 20,646 characters. By using Weiciyun, it was found that the total number of 
words in the text is 6,466, with an average sentence length of 37.59 words and a vocabulary density of 29.66%. However, in 
its English translation, the text consists of 13,315 words, with an average sentence length of 24.08 words and a vocabulary 
density of 19.50%. Compared to the original Chinese text, the English translation has undergone a reduction in length and a 
decrease in vocabulary density, indicating a simplification process during translation. 
The full text of the 2022 U.S. NDS contains 9,391 words. Its average sentence length is 24.91 words, and its vocabulary 
density is 20.98%. In contrast, CNDNE has an average sentence length of 24.08 words and a vocabulary density of 19.50%. 
English native speakers and bilingual individuals have previously expressed that the English version of CNDNE has 
excessively long sentences and is difficult to comprehend, while the 2022 NDS is not. However, we can notice that the average 
sentence length and vocabulary density of the two documents are quite similar. So why the former was believed to be difficult 
to understand and read? 
From the analysis above, we can see that the portrayal of China in the defense white paper is quite positive. However, if 
English readers find it challenging to read, they may struggle to even finish the first chapter of the white paper. As a result, 
they may not be able to gain a comprehensive understanding of China’s defense policy and its true image. How can we address 
this problem? The answer will be elaborated in the following sections. 
4.1 Writing-style and Tone Adjustment 



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It is difficult to read through the English CNDNE, and one of the main reasons is that it remains faithful to the original text 
rather than considering the needs of the target audience. The translators of CNDNE did not realize that the readers are native 
English speakers, not domestic readers, and they did not make adjustments to the overall writing style and tone of the text. 
They simply translated the original text from Chinese into English. Zhao (2021) argues that being overly faithful to the original 
text in translation can lead to poor reception among audiences from different cultural backgrounds. To enhance the 
communication of China’s defense strategy in the international community, it is important to change the mindset. Yuan (2005) 
suggests that translation for international communication should be directed toward the target language, ensuring that the 
recipients do not encounter obstacles in the process of receiving information. The translation should conform to the habits of 
the target language in terms of formatting and wording. 

Table 5. Chapters in the English CNDNE and 2022 NDS 

CNDNE (English                 Proportion 2022 NDS Proportion 

Preface  
1.52% 

Statement of the Department of 
Defense  9.11% 

International Security Situation                9.86% Introduction 10.99% 
China’s Defensive National Defense 
Policy in the New Era  13.42% 

Security Environment 
15.90% 

Fulfilling the Missions and Tasks of 
China’s Armed Forces in the New Era 15.90% 

Defense Priorities 
1.76% 

Reform in China’s National Defense 
and Armed Forces  27.36% 

Integrated Deterrence 
15.62% 

Reasonable and Appropriate Defense 
Expenditure  10.17% 

Campaigning 
7.25% 

Actively Contributing to Building a 
Community with a Shared Future for 
Mankind  20.43% 

Anchoring Our Strategy in Allies and 
Partners and Advancing Regional 
Goals 13.74% 

Closing Remarks  1.34% Force Planning 7.44% 
 

 

Building Enduring Advantages 12.28% 
Risk Management 3.59% 
Conclusion 2.32% 

 
Table 5 presents the chapter layout of the English translation of CNDNE and the 2022 NDS. The former is relatively lengthy. 
To address the problem of readers being unable to concentrate and read through the entire English version of CNDNE, we 
can draw inspiration from the writing style of the 2022 NDS. Therefore, the English version of CNDNE can begin with a 
chapter called “Introduction”, which briefly summarizes the key points to be discussed in the following sections. It includes 
the purpose, current situation, actions, vision, and stance of China’s defense. This will provide the target readers with a general 
understanding of China’s defense policy and position, attract them to continue reading, and prevent them from stopping due 
to the perceived difficulty of the English translation, thus achieving the purpose of the English translation of China’s national 
defense white papers. For instance, the introduction part of the translated CNDNE can be adjusted as follows:  
As China pursues a DEFENSIVE national defense policy, the development of its military is aimed at protecting its people, 
rather than posing a threat or challenge to other countries. Safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and development 
interests is the fundamental goal of China’s national defense in the new era. The South China Sea islands and Diaoyu Islands 
are inalienable parts of the Chinese territory. To solve the Taiwan question and achieve complete reunification of the country 
is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. 

The strategic goals for the development of China’s national defense and military in the new era are: 
 to generally achieve mechanization by the year 2020 with significantly enhanced informationization and 

greatly improved strategic capabilities; 
 to comprehensively advance the modernization of military theory, organizational structure, military 

personnel, and weaponry and equipment in step with the modernization of the country and complete the 
modernization of national defense and the military by 2035; and 

 to fully transform the people’s armed forces into world-class forces by the mid-21st century. 



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4.2 Pre-translation Processing of ST 
Given the differences between internal and external publicity of the national defense, ST can be processed and selected before 
the translation. Baker (2006) emphasizes that when we narrate, we not only represent social reality but also constitute it. That 
is, translators consciously utilize various framing strategies to select and interpret source texts, choose specific angles, 
emphasize certain content, and employ translation strategies to “interpret” and “rewrite” the source text for their political 
purposes. When we translate for international readers, we can draw on narrative techniques such as selective storytelling and 
cumulative storytelling, as utilized by Western media in translating our country’s enlistment videos (Han, 2018). When 
translating national defense white papers, we should consider China’s needs in external communication and foreign readers’ 
reading experience. It is important to highlight the key content that needs to be communicated externally, omit events that are 
not suitable for external promotion, and shape a positive image of China. 

Translation example 1. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Shēnrù tuījìn dǎngfēng liánzhèng jiànshè hé fǎnfǔbài dòuzhēng. Yánmíng zhèngzhì jìlǜ 
zhèngzhì guīju, yánsù cháchǔ Guō Bóxióng, Xú Cáihuò, Fáng Fēnghuī, Zhāng Yáng děng yánzhòng wéijì wéifǎ ànjiàn. 
Target text: Improving Party conduct, upholding integrity and continuing the fight against corruption. China’s armed 
forces are tightening political discipline and rules, investigating and dealing strictly with grave violations of CPC 
discipline and state laws as in the cases of Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, Fang Fenghui, and Zhang Yang. 

Anti-corruption is an internal event and policy, which is not needed to be translated and publicized overseas. Cases like this 
should be omitted during the translation rather than be rendered directly in the TT (see the above case). 
4.3 Improving the Translation of Phrases 

4.3.1 Translation Problems with Noun Phrases 
There are a lot of formal noun phrases in almost every sentence in the English version of CNDNE, which are wordy and 
require focus to read. Yuan (2005) argues that Chinese and English languages have different cultural backgrounds, values, 
and ways of thinking, which manifest linguistically in Chinese expressions being excessively embellished, with ornate 
wording and synonymous repetition. Zeng (2005) believes that the writing style of the Chinese national defense white paper 
reflects the thinking characteristics of Chinese cultures, such as the pursuit of balanced sentence structures and rhythmic 
phonetics, which result in the accumulation of words and cumbersome sentences. Therefore, it is hard to keep the readers 
engaged. Therefore, by not reorganizing the information from the original text and simply translating word-for-word following 
the structure and order of the original, it inevitably results in the English translation of the national defense white paper having 
a Chinese structure, rather than looking like it was written in authentic English. This could be one of the reasons why English 
readers find it challenging to read. Yang (2008) suggests that in diplomatic translation, one should not limit oneself to the 
linguistic form of the source language. It is necessary to make adjustments and bold choices in the language form based on 
the speaker’s context, thoughts, and background of foreign relations. This includes additions, deletions and conversions. 
Therefore, this paper advocates avoiding excessive coordination of nouns in the translated text. The translation strategies 
include: 

1) Categorizing and organizing the nouns before translation, eliminating redundant expressions; 
2) Finding commonalities among the words to connect the vocabulary; 
3) Appropriately transforming noun structures into verb structures; 
4) Discarding the structure and form of the original Chinese sentence and translating based on the inherent meaning of the 

sentence. 
Translation example 2. 
Source text: 2020

2035
 

Source text Romanized: Xīn shídài Zhōngguó guófáng hé jūnduì jiànshè de zhànlüè mùbiāo shì, dào 2020 nián jīběn 
shíxiàn jīxièhuà, xìnxīhuà jiànshè qǔdé zhòngdà jìnbù, zhànlüè nénglì yǒu dà de tísheng. Tóng guójiā xiàndàihuà 
jìnchéng xiāng yīzhì, quánmiàn tuījìn jūnshì lǐlùn xiàndàihuà, jūnduì zǔzhī xíngtài xiàndàihuà, jūnshì rényuán 
xiàndàihuà, wǔqì zhuāngbèi xiàndàihuà, lìzhēng dào 2035 nián jīběn shíxiàn guófáng hé jūnduì xiàndàihuà, dào běn 
shìjì zhōngyè bǎ rénmín jūnduì quánmiàn jiànchéng shìjiè yīliú jūnduì. 
Target text: The strategic goals for the development of China’s national defense and military in the new era are: 



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• to generally achieve mechanization by the year 2020 with significantly enhanced informationization and greatly 
improved strategic capabilities; 
• to comprehensively advance the modernization of military theory, organizational structure, military personnel, and 
weaponry and equipment in step with the modernization of the country and basically complete the modernization of 
national defense and the military by 2035; and 
• to fully transform the people’s armed forces into world-class forces by the mid-21st century. 

TT has the advantage of using bullet points to outline the strategic objectives of China’s national defense and military 
construction in the new era, which makes it clearer. However, the italicized part is noticeably wordy, with three noun structures 
and repetitive use of the term “modernization”. It appears overly formal and rigid. It could be improved by using verb 
structures, which would be more authentic and vivid. The italicized sentence could be modified as follows: 
“• to effectively modernize national defense and the military by 2035, we will focus on advancing military theory, 
organizational structure, personnel, and equipment in line with the country’s overall modernization efforts.” 

Translation example 3. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó jìxù bǎochí zhèngzhì āndìng, mínzú tuánjié, shèhuì wěndìng de liánghǎo júmiàn, 
zònghé guólì, guójì yǐngxiǎnglì, dǐyù fēngxiǎn nénglì míngxiǎn zēngqiáng, réng chǔyú fāzhǎn de zhòngyào zhànlüè 
jīyù qī, tóngshí yě miànlín duōyuán fùzá de ānquán wēixié hé tiǎozhàn. 
Target text: China continues to enjoy political stability, ethnic unity and social stability. There has been a notable 
increase in China’s overall national strength, global influence, and resilience to risks. China is still in an important 
period of strategic opportunity for development. Nevertheless, it also faces diverse and complex security threats and 
challenges. 

The Chinese language is known for its ornate and embellished expressions, which often involve excessive modifications. 
Therefore, it is a characteristic of the Chinese language to have numerous noun phrases listed in parallel within the same 
sentence. The 2022 NDS also includes nouns in parallel, although they are words instead of phrases. 
The TT can be replaced by “China maintains political stability, ethnic unity, and social harmony. Notably, it has witnessed 
a significant enhancement in its national strength, global influence, and resilience against risks. China is currently in a critical 
phase of strategic development opportunities. However, it also confronts diverse and complex security threats and challenges”. 
“Political stability, ethnic unity, and social stability” can be modified to “political stability, ethnic unity, and social harmony” 
to avoid repetition of the word “stability” and make the vocabulary in the English translation more varied. Additionally, 
“There has been a notable increase in China’s...” can be changed to “it has witnessed a significant enhancement” to unify the 
subject of the sentences as “China” and make them more coherent. 

4.3.2 Translating Bulletpoint-in-numbers with Footnotes  
In the English version of CNDNE, many phrases with Chinese characters for numbers, especially political terms, were not 
explained, making them difficult to understand. Readers sometimes have to search online to grasp the basic meanings of these 
phrases, which can be time-consuming. This could be another reason why it is challenging to complete reading the discourse. 
The translation strategy for such phrases is that the translators can add footnotes to the phrases with Chinese characters for 
numbers, providing a brief introduction to their basic meanings. 

Translation example 4. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó jiānchí zài hépíng gòngchǔ wǔ xiàng yuánzé jīchǔ shàng fāzhǎn tóng gèguó de 
yǒuhǎo hézuò, zūnzhòng gèguó rénmín zìzhǔ xuǎnzé fāzhǎn dàolù de quánlì, zhǔzhāng tōngguò píngděng duìhuà hé 
tánpàn xiéshāng jiějué guójì zhēngduān, fǎnduì gānshè biégúo nèizhèng, fǎnduì shì qiáng líng ruò, fǎnduì bǎ zìjǐ de 
yìzhì qiángjiā yú rén. 
Target text: China is committed to developing friendly cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles 
of Peaceful Coexistence. It respects the rights of all peoples to independently choose their own development path, and 
stands for the settlement of international disputes through equal dialogue, negotiation and consultation. China is 
opposed to interference in the internal affairs of others, abuse of the weak by the strong, and any attempt to impose 
one’s will on others. 



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A footnote can be added to explain the meaning of the italicized phrase: 
“Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence refer to mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-
aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.” 

Translation example 5. 
Source text: 2014 “ ”  
Source text Romanized: 2014 nián, Xiāngshān Lùntán shēngjí wéi "yī guǐ bàn" guójì ānquán hé fángwù duìhuà 
píngtái. 
Target text: In 2014, the Xiangshan Forum was upgraded to a track-1.5 platform of international security and defense 
dialogue. 

A footnote “Track 1.5 refers to a dialogue format that involves government officials and non-governmental participants, such 
as scholars and representatives from various sectors.” can be added. 
In the 2022 NDS, there are also phrases with numbers, but the meanings of these phrases are either explained in the original 
text or the phrases themselves convey their intended meanings clearly. For example-The strategy identifies four top-level 
defense priorities that the Department must pursue to strengthen deterrence. First, we will defend the homeland. Second, we 
will deter strategic attacks against the United States, our Allies, and our partners. Third, we will deter aggression and be 
prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary. Fourth, to ensure our future military advantage, we will build a resilient Joint 
Force and defense ecosystem. We will continue to work with Congress as critical changes are made, informed by the 
recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, to increase accountability; 
ensure we have a culture of zero tolerance for harassment and assault; enable active prevention, and support those who 
come forward. Finally, the Department will seek to eradicate all forms of extremism in our ranks. 
4.4 Reducing Excessive Adverbs 
In the English translation of CNDNE, there are 156 adverbs. However, not all adverbs in the original Chinese text need to be 
translated. Some of them, especially those indicating a strong emotional intensity, can be omitted, such as “actively”, “firmly”, 
“resolutely”, “unswervingly”, “earnestly” and “faithfully”. It is acknowledged that retaining these adverbs in the translation 
can serve as a means to illustrate the attitude and spirit of China to the global audience. However, in the 2022 NDS, there are 
fewer adverbs indicating emotional intensity-only four, including “urgently”, “seriously”, “actively” and “aggressively”. 
Therefore, this paper acknowledges that translating all adverbs indicating emotional intensity may appear excessive, 
potentially conveying an impression of excessive eagerness for accomplishments. This, in turn, has the potential to negatively 
impact China’s national image. Therefore, the translation strategy for addressing the issue of excessive adverbs is to remove 
adverbs indicating emotional intensity from the English translation. 

Translation example 6. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó yīguàn jījí cānyù guójì jūnkòng, cáijūn hé fáng kuòsàn nǔlì, fǎnduì jūnbèi jìngsài, 
wéihù quánqiú zhànlüè píng hé wěndìng, qiānshǔ huò jiārùle "bùkuòsàn héwǔqì tiáoyuē" děng shùshí gè duōbiān 
jūnkòng, cáijūn hé fáng kuòsàn tiáoyuē. 
Target text: China actively participates in international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. China objects 
to the arms race and strives to protect global strategic balance and stability. To this end, China has signed or acceded 
to dozens of relevant multilateral treaties including the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. 

“Actively” appears 23 times, followed by “resolutely” (9 times) and “firmly” (7 times). However, in the 2022 NDS, “actively” 
only appears once, which may suggest that the English version of CNDNE should exercise more restraint when using adverbs 
to convey emotions. Therefore, I believe that the adverb “actively” in the TT can be omitted to avoid giving English readers 
the impression that China has ambitious aspirations for international involvement. 

Translation example 7. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó jiānchí tóng dìqū guójiā yīdào wéihù hépíng wěndìng, jiāndìng wéihù gèguó yījù 
guójì fǎ suǒ xiǎngyǒu de hángxíng hé fēiyuè zìyóu, wéihù hǎishàng tōngdào ānquán. 
Target text: China continues to work with regional countries to jointly maintain peace and stability. It firmly upholds 
freedom of navigation and overflight by all countries in accordance with international law and safeguards the security 
of sea lines of communication (SLOCs). 



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There is a mistake in the TT: “work with regional countries to jointly maintain peace and stability” should be revised as 
“jointly work with regional countries to maintain peace and stability”. In this context, “firmly” emphasizes China’s strong 
support for the lawful rights of other countries. However, it can be omitted to avoid an overly solemn tone. This does not 
mean all the excessive adverbs could be omitted, as some are needed in terms of tones and stances in the English translations. 
Take example 8.  

Translation example 8. 
Source text: “ ”

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó jiānchí "hépíng tǒngyī, yīguó liǎngzhì" fāngzhēn, tuīdòng liǎng'àn guānxì hépíng 
fāzhǎn, tuījìn Zhōngguó hépíng tǒngyī jìnchéng, jiǎnjué fǎnduì yīqiè fēnliè Zhōngguó de túmóu hé xíngjìng, jiǎnjué 
fǎnduì rènhé wàiguó shìlì gānshè. 
Target text: China adheres to the principles of “peaceful reunification”, and “one country, two systems”, promotes 
peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, and advances peaceful reunification of the country. Meanwhile, China 
resolutely opposes any attempts or actions to split the country and any foreign interference to this end. 

The verb “oppose” already conveys a strong determination to disagree, so there is no need to translate the adverb “resolutely” 
in the TT. However, the translator chose to retain it, in an attempt to emphasize China’s strong opposition to any actions that 
undermine its sovereignty and domestic affairs. 
4.5 Using Words with Proper Connotations  
The choosing of words is not precise enough, which can mislead English readers, lead to misconceptions, and potentially 
cause difficulties in understanding and harm China’s national image. To address this, the translation strategy includes: 

1) Translators should enhance their bilingual proficiency, increase political sensitivity, and actively consult parallel texts 
and reference materials. 
2) Reviewers should focus on establishing priorities in reviewing translations and improving political sensitivity. 

Translation example 9. 
Source text: “ ”

“ ” “ ” “ ” “ ”
 

Source text Romanized: Fǎn fēnliè dòuzhēng xíngshì gèngjiā yánjùn, mín jìndǎng dāngjú wángù jiānchí "Tái dú" 
fēnliè lìchǎng, jù bù chéngrèn tǐxiàn yīgè Zhōngguó yuánzé de "jiǔ'èr gòngshí", jiājǐn tuīxíng "qù Zhōngguó huà", 
"jiàn jìn Tái dú", túmóu tuīdòng "fǎlǐ Tái dú", qiáng huà díyì duìkàng, xié yáng zìzhòng, zài fēnliè dàolù shàng yuè 
zǒu yuè yuǎn. 
Target text: The fight against separatists is becoming more acute. The Taiwan authorities, led by the Democratic 
Progressive Party (DPP), stubbornly stick to “Taiwan independence” and refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus, 
which embodies the one-China principle. They have gone further down the path of separatism by stepping up efforts 
to sever the connection with the mainland in favor of gradual independence, pushing for de jure independence, 
intensifying hostility and confrontation, and borrowing the strength of foreign influence. 

Independence refers to the independence of a nation, but Taiwan has historically been a part of China. Promoting “Taiwan 
independence” is an act of separating the country. As the Anti-Secession Law adopted by the NPC has classified the term 
“Taiwan Independence” as an act of separating China, it is more appropriate to translate the term “ ” as “Taiwan Secession 
Attempts” or “Taiwan Separatism,” which have been widely adopted by mainstream Chinese media. When translating the 
defense white papers, it is essential to consider the political implications of vocabulary, conduct thorough research, and 
exercise caution in translation. 
4.6 Multimodalizing the Translation 
Multimodality can make the text more engaging, readable, and interactive. Incorporating multimodality into the text enriches 
the ways information is conveyed, provides a more immersive reading experience, and helps readers better understand and 
digest the content. Wang (2019b) suggests that combining text with illustrations can effectively compensate for the limitations 
of text alone. 
The cover of the U.S. 2022 NDS is predominantly blue. In the center, there is a world map with the United States at the center, 
accompanied by the prominent words “2022 National Defense Strategy.” The map is surrounded by stars. At the top, there is 
the Pentagon’s logo, along with the words “U.S. Department of Defense” and red and white stripes, incorporating elements 
of the American flag — blue, white, red, and stars. The second page displays the Department of Defense emblem and the 



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words “2022 National Defense Strategy.” The third and fourth pages contain the Defense Secretary’s address, ending with his 
signature. The fifth page presents the table of contents, featuring images of weapons and military personnel from the US 
Army, Navy, and Air Force, aiming to showcase America’s military power. Within the main body of the text, each chapter’s 
title is represented at the top of the page using blue letters. The actions that the United States will take are presented in bullet 
points, making them clearer and easier to read. Key points within each section are highlighted in blue, bold, larger, and 
italicized text, such as “Strategic Competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC)”. Such titles are the 
key to the discourse. Using different colors and larger fonts can more effectively attract readers’ attention and draw their focus 
to these key pieces of information, thus achieving the purpose of the U.S. Department of Defense in publishing the white 
paper. 
The English translation of CNDNE utilizes multimodality to a limited extent, merely including bold chapter titles, presenting 
China’s national defense goals in bullet points, presenting some terms such as the names of military exercises in italics and 
bold, converting Chinese tables into English, adding an Acronyms at the end of the white paper. To make fuller use of 
multimodality in the translation of the white paper, adjustments can be made to present the content. For example: 
1) Highlighting the key points in different colors, larger fonts, bold, italics, capitalization, underlining, and quotation marks, 
allowing English readers to quickly capture the key information and enhancing the expression of emotion and impact. 

Translation example 10. 
Source text: 

 
Source text Romanized: Zhōngguó de shèhuì zhǔyì guójiā xìngzhì, zǒu hépíng fāzhǎn dàolù de zhànlüè juézé, dúlì 
zìzhǔ de hépíng wàijiāo zhèngcè, "hé wéi guì" de Zhōnghuá wénhuà chuántǒng, juédìngle Zhōngguó shǐzhōng bùyú 
fèngxíng fángyù xìng guófáng zhèngcè. 
Target text: The socialist system of China, the strategic decision to follow the path of peaceful development, the 
independent foreign policy of peace, and the best of cultural traditions – considering peace and harmony as 
fundamentals – determine that China will pursue a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. 

TT can be revised as “... that China was and is pursuing a DEFENSIVE national defense policy.” 
2) Incorporating both textual and visual elements by inserting images, charts, and graphs within the text to enhance expression. 
This can be a collaborative effort between the translators, the original authors, and the graphic editors of the defense white 
paper to determine to add some visual elements that make the document more engaging and visually appealing. 
3) The layout can be enhanced by improving the paragraph structure, page design, and differentiation of various heading 
levels. This can be achieved by using different font sizes or styles to highlight the varying levels of headings and distinguish 
different sections or chapters of the text. 
5. Conclusion 
By comparing and contrasting the different versions of the China’s national defense white paper, and those of China and the 
U.S., this study finds out the similarities and differences of the national defense white papers in terms of wording, sentences, 
textures and multimodalities based on a self-built parallel corpus. Also, it is revealed that China and the U.S. constructed 
different national images in their defense white papers. Furthermore, with a cross-lingual corpora analysis and text mining, 
this study has proposed four suggestions for the English translation of China’s national defense white papers: First, being 
reader-oriented and appropriately adjusting the narrative style and tone of the translation. If the English translation is difficult 
to read, we can add an introduction of the key information at the beginning of the discourse. Second, selectively translating 
the original text due to the distinction between domestic and international promotion. Third, translating the nouns flexibly 
through methods such as addition, deletion and conversion, while improving bilingual proficiency and political sensitivity; 
and finally, fully utilizing multimodal translation techniques. These findings are significant for the composing and translation 
of China’s national defense white papers in the future.  
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Declarations and Acknowledgment:  
The author declares there is no conflict of interest. 
This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund Key Project (under grant number 20&ZD312), and the Ministry 
of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences Fund (under grant number 22YJCZH250). 
  


