volume03issue01.0611.pdf Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 23 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 24 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 25 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 26 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 27 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. Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 28 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 29 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. Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 30 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 31 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. Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 32 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: Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 33 • 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. Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 34 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). Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 35 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 Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 03 No. 01 (2023) ISSN (online): 2766-791X ISSN (print): 2770-6354 36 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. References Baker, M. (2006). Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (1st ed.). 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A Comparative Study of Narrative Styles in Chinese and Australian Defense White Papers. English Studies, (2), 50-55+77. [In Chinese, , , . (2014). . .] 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).