Translating Xi Jinping’s speeches: China’s search for discursive power between ‘political correctness’ and ‘external propaganda’

Abstract

Assuming that politics is inseparably concerned with language, the paper provides some insights on the translation strategies adopted in western languages editions of the collection Xi Jinping: The Governance of China (Xi Jinping tan zhiguo lizheng 习近平谈治国理政), and on their potential impact in the perspective of China's external propaganda. The article collocates the editorial project in the perspective of China' discursive power strategy, as one of many current initiatives aimed to spread "China's voice" in the world. Since the volume apparently focuses on the construction of a heroic narrative around Xi Jinping's figure, the paper questions China's ability to adapt the Chinese leader's message for foreign rhetorical tastes and to build up a discourse able to attract and influence international public opinion. In particular, through an analysis of the translation process of the Italian edition of the book - where the author was involved as a translator - the paper tries to assess to what extent target-oriented strategies have influenced the choice of contents and translation in the book, as well as their effectiveness in terms of external propaganda.