AI can make China’s political language sound more threatening, scholar warns

China is being urged to use human translators to refine AI renderings of its political messaging, amid concerns that literal translations could make Beijing’s language sound more threatening abroad. An article in a state-affiliated academic newspaper said the country should strengthen its translation capacity and guard against AI-generated distortions to improve how its policies and intentions were understood overseas. As artificial intelligence (AI) takes on more translation work, human translators should work alongside the technology, according to Li Yan, a professor at Xian Fanyi University. “The value of translation goes far beyond language itself,” Li wrote in an article published on Wednesday in Chinese Social Sciences Today, a newspaper run by the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “In the AI era, a country’s translation capabilities have become a core measure of its cultural soft power and ability to participate in global governance.” Li called on Chinese translators to strengthen their ability to refine AI translations according to context, audience and purpose. She cited the Chinese idiom taoguang yanghui, widely used since the 1990s to describe Deng Xiaoping’s foreign policy approach: keeping a low profile internationally, avoiding confrontation, and prioritising domestic stability and development. Yet in English-language discourse, the phrase is often rendered as “hide your capabilities, bide your time” – a formulation that some overseas observers interpret as a deliberate effort to mask China’s long-term ambitions until it is strong enough to challenge the United States militarily, politically and economically. Without identifying a specific model, Li said AI had rendered the idiom as “hide brightness, nourish obscurity”. She warned that, taken literally, the translation could fuel perceptions that China was concealing a secret strategic agenda. “Recasting it as ‘maintain humility while building strength’ could convey our country’s diplomatic principles of peaceful development and proactive engagement.” Li also called on translators in the AI age to develop the practical skills needed to recognise, analyse and interpret culturally specific symbols, metaphors, references to history and political ideas. She pointed to a hallmark slogan from the 1980s that guided China’s reform drive, mozhe shitou guohe, often translated as “crossing the river by feeling the stones”. Translating it as “exploratory reform with incremental steps”, and dropping the imagery, could help foreign audiences better grasp the political-economic concept, Li said. Her recommendations come as Chinese government departments and academics place growing emphasis on translating political catchphrases and culturally specific concepts – an effort some frame as part of a wider contest over international narratives and public opinion. In the AI era, a country’s translation capabilities have become a core measure of its cultural soft power and ability to participate in global governance Li Yan, Xian Fanyi University Experts have warned that such translations shape both the messages Beijing sends abroad – where imprecision can raise the risk of miscalculation amid intensifying strategic rivalry with Washington – and overseas understanding of China’s domestic and foreign policy thinking, with consequences for its global image. Meanwhile, the challenges of translation have repeatedly complicated high-stakes diplomacy, particularly where languages and political cultures diverge sharply. In a report published last October, the prominent US think tank Rand Corporation accused a number of influential China experts – all proficient in Chinese and reliant on Chinese-language sources in their arguments – of introducing a “hawkish” distortion into their translations and interpretations of Beijing’s terminology. Stefan Messingschlager, a historian and political scientist at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, similarly argued in an article published last September that Western governments had continued to misread Beijing, although they possessed armies of Chinese speakers and AI translators. He argued that what was missing was independent, context-rich expertise: people capable of decoding China’s history-laden signals and puncturing bureaucratic groupthink. In her article this week, Li warned that China must guard against cultural misreadings, lapses in logic and value-laden bias when AI translates its political terminology. Still, she urged Chinese translators to actively embrace AI tools while developing the skills to work effectively with them and manage the risks they present. Li also proposed introducing interdisciplinary courses in China covering AI translation technology, human-computer interaction design and the digital humanities. A note accompanying the article said the piece formed part of an ongoing research project supported by China’s National Social Science Fund.

AI can make China’s political language sound more threatening, scholar warns

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Professor Li Yan says human expertise is vital to retaining context in AI translations of Beijing’s policy ideas for overseas audiences

Professor Li Yan says human expertise is vital to retaining context in AI translations of Beijing’s policy ideas for overseas audiences