Images of China Construed in President Xi Jinping’s Overseas Signed Articles (2014–2021): The Role of Agency

Abstract

This study explores the image of China projected in the Chinese version of President Xi Jinping’s overseas signed articles (OSAs) and their English translations regarding the review and proposal sections. A parallel corpus of 56 OSAs in two languages is established for synchronic and diachronic analysis (2014–2021). Linguistic choices in the system of AGENCY in systemic functional linguistics are focused to investigate whether an event is construed as self-engendered happening or being caused by an external Agent. The study finds that through consistent linguistic choices of demonstrating events as either actions or happenings, the images of China construed discursively in the proposal section are generally active, responsible, competent and cooperative in both versions. However, in the review, a modest, equal and inclusive images in Chinese originals of OSAs published in developed countries shift into active, competent and exclusive in their English translations. Both linguistic and contextual factors are examined to explain such shifts in language and image.

Full text

Original Research
SAGE Open
April-June 2023: 1–16
ÓThe Author(s) 2023
DOI: 10.1177/21582440231178304
journals.sagepub.com/home/sgo
Images of China Construed in President
Xi Jinping’s Overseas Signed Articles
(2014–2021): The Role of Agency
Xi Wang
1
Abstract
This study explores the image of China projected in the Chinese version of President Xi Jinping’s overseas signed articles
(OSAs) and their English translations regarding the review and proposal sections. A parallel corpus of 56 OSAs in two lan-
guages is established for synchronic and diachronic analysis (2014–2021). Linguistic choices in the system of AGENCY in sys-
temic functional linguistics are focused to investigate whether an event is construed as self-engendered happening or being
caused by an external Agent. The study finds that through consistent linguistic choices of demonstrating events as either
actions or happenings, the images of China construed discursively in the proposal section are generally active, responsible,
competent and cooperative in both versions. However, in the review, a modest, equal and inclusive images in Chinese origi-
nals of OSAs published in developed countries shift into active, competent and exclusive in their English translations. Both lin-
guistic and contextual factors are examined to explain such shifts in language and image.
Keywords
overseas signed article, political discourse, agency, translation, China’s image, Xi Jinping
Introduction
Xi Jinping’s administration has been promoting the
political metadiscourse
1
(Zhang, 2010) after he was
elected the President of China. Since 2014, he has pub-
lished 56 overseas signed articles (OSAs) or bylined arti-
cles ahead of state visits as one of his creative efforts
2
to
publicize China and Chinese government in the interna-
tional sphere. As a sub-genre of political discourse, the
OSA is a concentrated interpretation of president’s aim
of a particular state visit to the general public of the
country of visit. The generic structure of Xi’s OSAs usu-
ally falls into two sections though without explicit subti-
tles: the review and the proposal. The former usually
demonstrates friendship and diplomatic ties between two
countries and introduces what China has done in contri-
buting to domestic and global development, as well as
efforts done by the country of visit, whereas the latter
routinely sets forth specific plans for cooperation. Xi’s
OSAs are often published in foreign local language in
their mainstream newspapers, simultaneously with their
Chinese versions available for domestic publicity and
English ones released for internationalization and mass-
mediatization (if not published in English). These
translated texts are of great significance in national
image building both at home and abroad (Yang, 2015).
As an important issue in sociological theory (Dietz &
Burns, 1992), Agency is the ‘‘starting place of doing’’
(Oakeshott & Fuller, 2001, p. 35), about cause, and who
or what, if anything, causes the process to happen
(Dreyfus, 2017), emphasizing on individual’s willingness,
capability and effort to enforce their beliefs and actions
(Bandura, 2001). The primary distinction between ‘‘what
we do and what happens to us,’’ that is, actions and hap-
penings, introduces different levels of responsibility and
commitment of active subjects in the process (Quigley,
2000; Taylor, 1985). Hence, Agency functions as posi-
tioning the self in either a past, present or future act
along a cline of responsibility (O’Connor, 2000), helping
to mark the self-image construal. It is hypothesized that
1
Xi’an International Studies University, China
Corresponding Author:
Xi Wang, School of English Studies/Language Testing Innovative Research
Team, Xi’an International Studies University, Chang’an District, Xi’an,
Shaanxi 710128, China. (陕西省西安市长安区西安外国语大学长安校区
英文学院)
Email: wangxi@xisu.edu.cn
Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of
the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

translators may manipulate various linguistic systems
consciously or subconsciously through choices, result-
ing in changes in meaning which then alters characteri-
zation (i.e., images of characters) in the translation.
Therefore, by introducing linguistic interpretation, this
study mainly adopts AGENCY and other interactive
linguistic systems in systemic functional linguistics
(SFL) as its analytical framework to explore different
images of China construed in Chinese OSAs and their
English translations due to both linguistic and contex-
tual accounts.
Though there have been a great number of studies on
political discourse (Charteris-Black, 2005, 2014; Chilton,
2004; van Dijk, 1997; Wodak, 2009), few investigates on
non-Western discourse, let alone Chinese (Shi-xu, 1997,
2005, 2013, 2014; S. Wang & Zhang, 2017) and Xi
Jinping’s discourse (Huang, 2017; J. Wang, 2017a,
2017b). For Xi’s OSA, a relatively new genre, only very
general and macro features are examined including its
writing style (X. Wen, 2014), rhetorical strategies (Chen
& Wu, 2017), thoughts of international communication
(J. Wen, 2016) and Chinese-English translation strategies
(Fan & Hu, 2017). Taking a quantitative approach, this
study is a diachronic one (2014–2021) across languages.
It examines a translation phenomenon different from
other studies either as source-initiated translation (Yu &
Wu, 2018) or facts of target culture (Toury, 1995), as the
OSA is first drafted in Chinese (source language) for
translation with diplomatic purpose, and then translated
into other languages by in-house translators under strict
governmental supervision to ensure its political and ideo-
logical correctness (Y. Wang, 2014). Thus, the OSA is
target-initiated, but source-supervised.
This article attempts to find answers to the following
research questions:
(i) Are there any shifts of Agency in the process of
translating Chinese OSAs to English?
(ii) Is there any difference of China’s national image
construed in Chinese OSAs and their English
translations?
(iii) If any, why are the images differently construed
in two versions?
AGENCY and Other Interactive
Grammatical Systems in SFL
AGENCY and Cline of Responsibility
The analytical framework of this study is primarily the
system of AGENCY in SFL, since it is particularly rele-
vant to the ‘‘translation of ideology’’ (Hatim & Mason,
1997) and the attribution of responsibility (Dreyfus,
2017; L. Li, 2020). Other closely related grammatical sys-
tems are TRANSITIVITY, VOICE, and THEME.
3
SFL
identifies three metafunctions of language, namely idea-
tional metafunction (construing experience), interperso-
nal metafunction (negotiating social relations) and
textual metafunction (information flow) (Martin &
White, 2005, p. 7). Ideationally, two complimentary per-
spectives are applied to construe our world and experi-
ence (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p. 281): the
transitive model (the system of TRANSITIVITY) and
the ergative model (the system of AGENCY).
Transitivity is ‘‘modeled as a configuration of a process,
participants involved in it, and attendant circumstances’’
(Martin et al., 2010, p. 98). It differentiates between pro-
cess types, that is, doing and happening (material pro-
cess), sensing (mental process), saying (verbal process)
and being and having (relational process). And each
assigns with different participants, for example, Actor/
Goal in the material process, Senser/Phenomenon in the
mental, Token/Value in the relational. However, ergativ-
ity generalizes across those different process types, estab-
lishing a central participant common to all process types,
that is, the Medium, through which the process unfolds
or gets actualized (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.
284).
The ergative model emphasizes on the causation of an
action, presenting an event as being self-engendered with
Medium only, or as being caused from outside with
another participant functioning as Agent (the instigator
of an action), explicit or implicit, as long as it has the fea-
ture of Agency. A clause without an Agent is regarded as
‘‘middle voice,’’ whereas one with a feature of Agency is
considered ‘‘effective’’ in the system of VOICE. The
effective voice can either be identified as operative (active
voice, where the Theme is the Agent) or receptive (pas-
sive voice, where the Theme is the Medium, with or with-
out Agent through ‘‘by’’), where the implied Agent is
usually recoverable from the context or co-text. THEME
is a central system in the textual metafunction. Theme is
defined as the point of departure of a message (Halliday
& Matthiessen, 2004), gaining textual prominence as a
starting point and then moving to the non-prominent
rest called the Rheme.
The system of AGENCY is illustrated in Figure 1. To
be more specific, there are four different representations
of the same experience of, for example, the expansion of
the economic cooperation, see clause analysis of (1)(2)(3)
(4) in Figure 2.
In the TRANSITIVITY, ‘‘economic cooperation’’ is
Goal in clause (1)(2)(3), but Actor in clause (4).
However, in the system of AGENCY, ‘‘economic coop-
eration’’ is Medium across all the four clauses. Clause (1)
(2)(3) are effective, indicating that the expansion is
caused by an external force (i.e., Agent) explicit as ‘‘our
governments’’ in clause (1) and (2), but implicit in (3).
Clause (4) is middle, presenting the expansion of the
2SAGE Open

economic cooperation as an event happening by itself.
Such distinction between effective and middle clauses
exists in both Chinese and English.
Based on the intertwining analysis of AGENCY,
TRANSITIVITY, VOICE, and THEME, a cline of
responsibility (Dreyfus, 2017) was proposed, see Figure
2. It is argued that construing events in operative clause
(active voice) attributes maximum responsibility to the
do-er, because placing the do-er in the initial Theme posi-
tion will foreground the agentive role with textual promi-
nence (Dreyfus, 2017). Therefore, the receptive (with
Agent) with do-er as the Rheme assigns less
Figure 2. Cline of responsibility (adapted from Dreyfus, 2017, p. 379).
Figure 1. The system of AGENCY with examples.
Wang 3

responsibility than the operative, whereas in an agentless
receptive clause, the Agent which can only be inferred as
the do-er is not shown. Further down the cline, the mid-
dle clause completely leaves out any responsibility as if it
is self-engendered.
Investigating Image Through Agency
Grammar, in a systemic functional approach, is viewed
as a theory of reality rather than simple rules, and the
scope and intricacy of the grammatical systems of a lan-
guage drives us to be selective (Lukin et al., 2004). The
notion of image in this study is redefined from an SFL
perspective as the semantic outcome of recurring linguis-
tic choices (Yu & Wu, 2018) in both Chinese and English
OSAs. Given that linguistic choices in discourse are not
made by chance though they may result from uncon-
scious plan (Hasan, 2009), the recurring pattern in OSAs
will produce a specific semantic outcome (i.e., image of
China).
Agency analysis allows divergent participant types of
an Agent to be identified and labeled in the ergative or
transitive model, contributing to a better understanding
of image construction of a character. According to
Hasan (1988, p. 65), the perception of what a person is
like (i.e., image) derives from what kind of participant
roles are assigned to him/her, and the same goes to an
institution or even a nation. By analyzing participant
roles ascribed to a character, that is, what the character
does in a particular discourse, linguistic evidence for the
writer’s or translator’s construal of their image as active
or passive, demanding or submissive etc. can be obtained
(Yu & Wu, 2016). Therefore, persistent shifts in agentive
roles may bring a significant change in image construed
(L. Li, 2020).
Previous studies on Agency and characterization or
image-building mainly focus on shifting blames or shirk-
ing responsibility (e.g., Dreyfus, 2017; Lukin et al., 2004)
from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. This
study, however, will approach it through Positive
Discourse Analysis, targeting at positive image
construction by taking responsibility. More specifically,
by concentrating on linguistic choices within the system
of AGENCY, this study hopes to find evidence in gram-
matical structure and linguistic patterns in Xi’s OSAs for
Chinese government’s positive self-positioning to differ-
ent audiences through translation.
Data and Methodology
Corpus Data
The dataset of this study comprises a diachronic parallel
corpus of 56 Xi Jinping’s OSAs in Chinese and their offi-
cially published English translations between 2014 and
2021. Both the Chinese and English OSAs were collected
on Xinhua Net,
4
an internet portal run by China’s biggest
state-run agency—Xinhua News Agency, responsible for
publishing authoritative official government documents
and People’s Daily Online,
5
distinguished for ‘‘party web-
site’’ as it is owned by People’s Daily, the party newspa-
per of Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China.
Table 1 shows the distribution of the 56 OSAs. Due
to the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020, offline
cross-state visits are substituted by online meetings,
therefore, no OSAs are published since then. Among the
56 OSAs, 14 were selected for detailed analysis given
their distribution of publication date and country group-
ings (developed, developing and least developed coun-
tries according to the latest UN Human Development
Report in 2010) to ensure the representativeness of the
sample, see the ‘‘Selected’’ lines of Table 1. Table 2 dis-
plays the basic information of the 14 OSAs. All clauses
in each OSA of two languages are analyzed, resulting in
around 2,817 clauses (Chinese: 1,477; English: 1,340) in
total.
Analytical Procedures
All the clauses of both Chinese and English OSAs in this
corpus are annotated through UAM CorpusTool 3.3, a
specialized analytical tool for SFL, and retrieved by
Table 1. Distribution of the 56 OSAs.
Time 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Developed 7 1 2 3 4 3 / / 20
Developing 6 6 8 2 5 3 / / 30
Least developed 0 0 2 1 2 0 1 / 6
Total 13 7 12 6 11 6 1 / 56
Selected Developed 1 0 1 1 1 1 / / 5
Developing 1 1 1 1 1 1 / / 6
Least developed 0 0 1 1 1 0 / / 3
Total 2 1 3 3 3 2 / / 14
4SAGE Open

AntConc 3.5.8, a concordance tool. The clausal analysis
is manually done based on the description of the
AGENCY system in Chinese (Halliday & McDonald,
2004; E. S. Li, 2007) and English (Halliday &
Matthiessen, 1999, 2004). The coded elements include
voice (middle/effective, operative/receptive) and Agent
(China/the country of visit/both sides). The analysis of
each clause was double checked by other two scholars
familiar with both languages and SFL to ensure
accuracy.
Results and Discussion
In this section, Chinese OSAs and their English transla-
tions are thoroughly analyzed in relation to the system of
AGENCY and images thus construed. The reasons why
differences emerge in both linguistic patterns and images
projected across languages are explored from both lin-
guistic and contextual perspectives.
A Quantitative Profile
Xi’s 14 OSAs in both Chinese and English were analyzed
in UAM CorpusTool 3.3 regarding AGENCY. The
results are automatically summarized, including the
review and proposal sections of each OSA. Table 3 out-
lines the overall number and proportion of middle and
effective clauses in both versions across two sections. For
the ratio of middle and effective clauses, regarding differ-
ent languages, English translations use more effective
clauses (74%) than Chinese originals (64%). In terms of
different sections, except the review section of Chinese
OSAs where middle (46%) and effective (54%) are rela-
tively balanced, the others are dominated by effective
Table 2. Data Overview of the 14 Selected OSAs.
Date Country of visit Title of OSAs Newspapers published
Chinese
(character)
English
(word)
Token Type Token Type
2014/09/17 India (developing) Towards an Asian century of
prosperity
The Hindu and Dainik Jagran 1,581 455 978 418
2014/11/14 Australia
(developed)
Opening a More Splendid
Chapter in China-Australia
Ties
Australian Financial Review 1,992 489 1,275 515
2015/04/19 Pakistan
(developing)
Long live China-Pakistan
friendship!
Combat and Daily News 1,730 434 1,096 410
2016/01/18 Saudi Arabia
(developing)
Be Good Partners for Common
Development
Alriyadh 1,973 542 1,411 562
2016/03/26 Czechia
(developed)
Time to Renew and Energize
China-Czech Ties
Pravo Daily 2,328 557 1,488 553
2016/10/14 Bangladesh (least
developed)
China-Bangladesh Cooperation
Will Bear Golden Fruits
The Daily Star and Prothom Alo 2,091 610 1,332 555
2017/07/04 Germany
(developed)
To Make the World a Better
Place
mainstream German media 2,617 546 1,615 585
2017/11/09 Vietnam
(developing)
For a New Vista in China-
Vietnam Friendship
Nhan Dan 2,292 622 1,571 627
2017/11/13 Lao (least
developed)
China and Laos: Working
Together for a Communityof
Shared Future with Strategic
Significance
Pasaxon, Pathet Lao, and Vientiane
Times
2,532 637 1,694 631
2018/07/20 Senegal (least
developed)
SUNU JAPPO, China and
Senegal!
Le Soleil 1,811 527 1,141 497
2018/11/30 Panama
(developing)
Working Together for a Shared
Future
La Estrella de Panama 1,987 559 1,339 519
2018/12/03 Portugal
(developed)
A Friendship across Time and
Space, A Partnership for the
Future
Diario de Noticias 2,103 586 1,404 574
2019/03/23 France (developed) Move Together Toward
Common Development
Le Figaro 2,055 524 1,361 524
2019/06/12 Tajikistan
(developing)
Working Together for a Brighter
Future of China-Tajikistan
Friendship
Narodnaya Gazeta and the state-
run Khovar News Agency
2,233 590 1,505 638
Wang 5

clauses. Furthermore, within all the effective clauses,
receptive ones used in both Chinese and English OSAs,
across both sections, are negligible compared with opera-
tive clauses (1%:63%; 8%:66%). Distributionally, the
review section has far more receptive clauses than the
proposal in both languages (14:1; 88:13). And interlin-
gually, receptive clauses are more frequently used in
English OSAs (n= 101) than in Chinese ones (n=15).
One of the reasons may be that passive voice can create a
sense of emotional distance between the reader and the
narrative, and fosters objectivity in English (Baratta,
2009), therefore in historical recounts in the review sec-
tion, respective clauses are more frequently adopted in its
English translations. However, in Chinese, receptive
clauses are usually used to express undesirability and
adversity (C. N. Li & Thompson, 1989), and thus uncom-
mon to be seen in future prospect of such diplomatic dis-
course, but may appear in the description of difficulties
and drawbacks experienced in the review.
Figures 3 and 4 shows more detailed data of each
OSA in time order. Generally, no particular raising or
falling trends can be found diachronically, but there
are interesting patterns across languages and sections.
As presented in Figure 3, in the review section, the ratio
of middle clause in Chinese OSAs generally outnum-
bers that of the English versions, and fluctuates more
vigorously (between 20% and 70%) than their English
translations (between 20% and 50%). Furthermore,
Chinese OSAs published in Australia (61%), Czechia
(53%), Germany (70%), Portugal (51%) and France
(55%), which are all developed countries, are presented
as peaks in the line, demonstrating that the proportion
of their middle clauses exceed effective ones (middle
.50%). As for the other OSAs, the opposite is
revealed. English translations of the review section take
on a consistent feature where all the OSAs favor effec-
tive clauses (middle\50%). In the proposal section
(see Figure 4), the trends of middle clauses in Chinese
and English OSAs basically coincide, indicating that
effective clauses in OSAs of both languages dominate,
taking up more than 70% for each (middle \30%).
In terms of the Agent, China and the country of visit
(CV)—either implicit or explicit—dominates in OSAs of
both languages. China-related Agents (C), in a similar
vein, generally surpass that of the country of visit (V)
(see Figures 5 and 6), revealing a more active image of
China and Chinese government compared with other
nations, be it developing, least developed or developed
countries.
To conclude, except the review section of five Chinese
OSAs published in developed countries, effective clauses
greatly overcount the middle ones. Events are construed
Table 3. Middle and Effective Clauses in Two Versions of OSAs Across Sections.
Sections Middle Effective: operative Effective: receptive Total
Chinese
OSAs
Review 403 (46%) 461 (53%) 14 (1%) 878
Proposal 121 (21%) 467 (79%) 1 (0%) 589
Total 534 (36%) 928 (63%) 15 (1%) 1,477
English
OSAs
Review 260 (33%) 434 (56%) 88 (11%) 782
Proposal 92 (17%) 453 (81%) 13 (2%) 558
Total 352 (26%) 887 (66%) 101 (8%) 1,340
Figure 4. Middle and effective choices of AGENCY in the
proposal section in Chinese and English OSAs.
Figure 3. Middle and effective choices of AGENCY in the review
section in Chinese and English OSAs.
6SAGE Open

more as other-caused actions than self-engendered hap-
penings, construing a general image of participants that
is more active and responsible (Yu & Wu, 2018).
China’s Image Construed in Chinese and English OSAs
Review Section
Retrospecting Bilateral Ties. A detailed analysis of the
data presents that when reviewing the historical relation-
ship between China and the country of visit, more events
are described as happening by themselves in Chinese ver-
sion of OSAs published in developed countries, whereas
more agentive roles are assigned to both sides in develop-
ing and least developed countries. However, events in
English OSAs are construed more as caused by outside
Agents constantly across all countries (see Figure 2).
Excerpts (Ex. for emphasis) from OSAs of two languages
are displayed, with an additional literal translation
within quotation marks when the two are divergent in
Agency. For sample selection, the Difference (D)
between Chinese middle and English middle is consid-
ered (see dotted lines in Figure 2). As for OSAs pub-
lished in developed countries, the top three is chosen,
that is, Australia (D= 38%), Portugal (D= 30%) and
France (D= 21%), because they represent the most fre-
quent shifts in Agency (from Chinese middle to English
effective). But for that in developing and least developed
countries, the bottom three is adopted, that is,
Bangladesh (D= 1%), Senegal (D= 4%) and Pakistan
(D= 5%), since they indicate the least frequent shifts in
Agency.
Australia
Ex. 1 — 中澳高層及各級別交往密切，政治互信不斷加
深。/中澳經貿等務實合作成果豐碩，利益交融不斷加深。/
中澳人文交流蓬勃發展，友好情誼不斷加深。
‘‘China-Australia contacts at both the top and other levels
are close, and the political mutual trust continues to dee-
pen./China-Australia achievements in practical business co-
operation are fruitful, and the converging interests continues
to deepen./ China-Australia cultural exchanges is flourish-
ing, and the friendship continues to deepen’’
—China and Australia have maintained close contacts at
both the top and other levels and deepened mutual trust./
China and Australia have achieved fruitful results in practi-
cal business co-operation and deepened converging inter-
ests./China and Australia have engaged in vibrant people-to-
people exchanges and deepened bilateral friendship.
Ex. 2 澳大利亞的優質乳、肉製品、葡萄酒也越來越多地擺
上中國民眾的餐桌。
‘‘Australian premium dairy, meat and wine increasingly dis-
play on the dining tables of Chinese people.’’
Meanwhile, the premium dairy, meat and wine products of
Australia are increasingly served at the dining tables of
Chinese households.
Portugal
Ex. 3…但兩國人民友誼源遠流長，曆久彌堅。
‘‘.but the friendship between the two peoples dates back to
ancient times and has grown stronger with the passing of
time.’’
.our peoples have forged an enduring friendship dating
back to antiquity.
Ex. 4 中國青花瓷漂洋過海來到葡萄牙，同當地瓷器製作技
術相融合，形成了獨具魅力的「葡萄牙藍」。
‘‘China’s blue and white porcelain sailed across the ocean to
Portugal, combined with the local porcelain-making tech-
nique, and established unique ‘Portugal blue.’’’
China’s blue and white porcelain, which was first shipped to
Portugal centuries ago, inspired a fusion of Chinese and
local techniques, producing a unique form of art Azulejo.
Figure 5. Specific Agents in 14 Chinese OSAs across two
sections.
Figure 6. Specific Agents in 14 English OSAs across two
sections.
Wang 7

France
Ex. 5 — 兩國關係前行的步履更加穩健。/兩國共同利益的
蛋糕越做越大。/兩國友好的根基不斷加深。
‘‘The steps of two countries’ relationship get steadier./The
cake of two countries’ common interest makes bigger and
bigger./The foundation of two countries’ friendship contin-
ues to deepen.’’
—We are making steadier progress in pushing our relations
forward./We are making the pie of our converging interests
bigger./We are cementing the foundation of our friendship.
Ex. 6 這份情誼來自中法兩國源遠流長的友誼，更來自雙方
在相互尊重和信任基礎上的民心相通。
‘‘Such friendship comes from the long-standing friendly
ties between China can France, and comes from the close-
ness between our peoples based on mutual respect and
trust.’’
Such friendship is rooted in the long-standing friendly ties
between our two countries, and reinforced by the closeness
between our peoples with mutual respect and mutual trust.
Chinese OSAs published in developed countries in Ex.
1 to 6 are unfolded through agentless clauses: 政治互信/
利益交融/友好情誼加深(political mutual trust/ conver-
ging interest/friendship deepens), 澳大利亞的產品擺上
餐桌(Australian products display on the dining tables),
中國青花瓷漂洋過海(China’s blue and white porcelain
sailed), 關係穩健(relationship gets steadier), 蛋糕越做越
大(cake makes bigger). All the events are construed as
self-engendered without external force.
As an alternative for highlighting the do-ers, the
achievements made in the past between China and devel-
oped countries are emphasized by using middle clause in
Chinese language, taking minimum responsibility.
Construing events as happenings by themselves instead
of two governments as external Agents pushing hard
their relations, shows Chinese traditional virtue of mod-
esty and claiming no credit for self after achievements
done, making the relationship naturally connected rather
than artificially established by an external force. In this
way, an image of China that has relatively equal status
with developed countries instead of an obsequious one is
thus construed through linguistic choices.
In contrast, the English OSA do not follow the
Chinese way of expression by using middle voice, but
either add agentive roles like ‘‘China and Australia,’’
‘‘our peoples’’ and ‘‘we’’ (Ex. 1, 3, 5), or transfer it into
effective-receptive clause in need of an external Agent
(Ex. 2, 4, 6). This shows a more active, responsible and
competent image of both countries in building up diplo-
matic ties. It could also be a linguistic approach to con-
struct solidarity and pull closer the emotional distance
between China and the country of visit.
Bangladesh
Ex. 7 近代以來，中孟兩國人民飽受戰爭和國家貧弱之苦，
為爭取民族獨立和解放、促進國家發展和進步而不懈努
力，鑄就了牢固的友誼和信任。
More recently, having endured repeated wars and incessant
poverty, our peoples fought tenaciously for national indepen-
dence and liberation, strove for development and progress
and forged unshakable trust and friendship in the process.
Ex. 8..建交41年來，中國始終視孟加拉國為真摯的朋
友、發展的夥伴，高度重視中孟關係發展，同孟方在涉及
彼此核心利益的問題上相互堅定支持。
Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 41 years ago,
China has always regarded Bangladesh as its true friend and
partner for development. China highly values its relations
with Bangladesh. We firmly support each other on issues
concerning each other’s core interests.
Senegal
Ex. 9 中方支持塞方走適合本國國情的發展道路，塞方在涉
及中國核心利益問題上給予中方堅定支持。
China supports Senegal in choosing a development path in
line with its national conditions and Senegal firmly supports
China on issues concerning China’s core interest.
Ex. 10 中方提供融資實施的鄉村打井工程將建設251口水井
和1800公里管線，解決塞內加爾七分之一人口的吃水用水
問題。
The rural water supply project that includes 251 wells and
1800-kilometer pipelines funded by China will benefit one
seventh of Senegal’s population.
Pakistan
Ex. 11 長期以來，在各領域開展了全方位互利合作，結出
了累累碩果，給兩國人民帶來實實在在的利益。當前，兩
國正在穩步推進中巴經濟走廊建設，致力於打造中巴命運
共同體。
Over a long period of time, China and Pakistan have con-
ducted all-round, mutually beneficial and fruitful coopera-
tion in various fields, bringing tangible benefits to the people
of both countries. At present, the two sides are working
together to steadily advance the China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor.
Ex. 12 兩國在涉及彼此核心利益問題上始終相互尊重、相
互理解、相互支持。
We have always respected, understood and supported each
other on issues concerning our respective core interests.
For OSAs published in developing and least devel-
oped countries in their Chinese version in Ex. 7 to 12, Xi
reconstrues the events as being caused by external
Agents, that is, ‘‘中孟兩國人民(peoples of China and
8SAGE Open

Bangladesh),’’ ‘‘中方(China)’’ and ‘‘塞方(Senegal),’’ ‘‘中
巴兩國(China and Pakistan),’’ ‘‘兩國(two countries),’’
focusing on the friendship built through similar struggles
for independence in the modern history, their mutual
supports and aids, and their efforts made domestically
and globally. The images of China here construed are
active, responsible and competent by ascribing more
agentive roles to both sides, emotionally seeking for
common grounds.
Their English versions also choose effective voice with
explicit Agents accurately translated as ‘‘our peoples,’’
‘‘China,’’ ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘China and Pakistan,’’ ‘‘the two sides,’’
regardless of the operative or receptive (Ex. 10). But
English versions use more explicit Agents, reinforcing
the causes (like Ex. 8, Chinese original uses 1 Agent ‘‘中
國’’ while English translation uses 3 ‘‘China,’’ ‘‘China’’
and ‘‘we’’). Therefore, the active, responsible and compe-
tent images of China are more impressive in English
versions.
For complement, the system of TRANSITIVITY is
also examined concerning their process types. The data
reveal that relational (being) process occurs more fre-
quently in Chinese OSAs published in developed coun-
tries, whereas material (doing) process in developing
and least developed countries. However, all of the
English OSAs are dominated by material process. For
instance, in Ex. 3 and 5, the clauses are relational in
Chinese, but shifted into material in English with
Theme-Agents ‘‘our people’’ and ‘‘we ’’ textuall y promi-
nent. The different choices of process types construe
different experience, one (relational) through states of
being, focusing on the results or achievements realized
out of the relationship, and the other (material) in
terms of material actions, highlighting the process or
efforts made for building and enhancing the relation-
ship. The ‘‘being’’ process creates a distanced depiction
of events (Lukin et al., 2004). Such semiotic distance
may enhance the impression of long history and rich
culture of two countries (i.e., China and developed
countries). The ‘‘doing’’ process, on the other hand,
shifting the history which modern people never experi-
enced into a more realistic scene, enhancing their his-
torical engagement among audiences (i.e., China and
developing and least developed countries).
Voicing China. In the review section, as a way of voicing
and branding China, there will always be lines introducing
what China has done, is doing or will do in contributing
to domestic and global development, see Ex. 13 to 15.
Vietnam
Ex. 13 上個月，中國共產黨成功召開第十九次全國代表大
會。這次大會制定了中國黨和國家未來發展的總體方針和
行動綱領……到2020年，將全面建成小康社會……
從2035
年到本世紀中葉，把中國建設成為富強民主文明和諧美麗
的社會主義現代化強國。
‘‘Last month, the Communist Party of China (CPC) success-
fully held its 19th National Congress. This congress drafted
the overall guidelines and program of action for the future
development of the party and the country.By 2020, will
complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in
all respects.from 2035 to the middle of this century,
develop China into a great modern socialist country that is
prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, har-
monious, and beautiful.’’
The Communist Party of China successfully held its
19th National Congress last month. Overall guidelines
and program of action were set out for the future devel-
opment of the party and the country.Our plan is to
complete the building of a moderately prosperous society
in all respects by 2020.and develop China into a great
modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, dem-
ocratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful
by the middle of this century.
Czechia
Ex.14 中國人民正在為全面建成小康社會、實現「兩個一
百年」奮鬥目標、實現中華民族偉大復興的中國夢而不懈
努力。
People in China are now striving to complete the building of
a moderately prosperous society in all respects, advance
towards the ‘‘two centenary goals’’ of development (i.e. to
double 2010 GDP and per capita income and finish the
building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects
by the time the CPC celebrates its centenary in 2021 and to
turn the PRC into a modern socialist country that is pros-
perous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmo-
nious by the time it celebrates its centenary in 2049) and
realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
Pakistan
Ex. 15 中國人民正在努力實現中華民族偉大復興的中國
夢。中國夢是和平、發展、合作、共贏的夢，我們追求中
國人民的福祉，也追求各國人民共同的福祉。
The Chinese people are working toward the Chinese dream
of great national rejuvenation. It is a dream about peace,
development and win-win cooperation. What we pursue is
not just the interests of the Chinese people, but also the
common interests of the world people.
In these Chinese excerpts, almost all the clauses are
effective-operative, with ‘‘CPC,’’ National ‘‘congress,’’
‘‘the Chinese people’’ and other implicit China-related
subjects as external Agents, actively holding, drafting,
completing, building, developing, striving, advancing
and realizing, thus creating an active and competent
image of Chinese government. Though in Chinese, the
Wang 9

Theme-Agent in declarative clause is often omitted as
presenting the goals of different stages in Ex. 13, it is easy
for Chinese audiences to distinguish from the co-text and
context that it is the Chinese government as Agent to
implement all the activities. The omitted Agent in these
clauses can be ‘‘我們’’ (exclusive ‘‘we’’) or ‘‘中國政府’’
(Chinese government), excluding the Chinese audience.
Such a linguistic choice, that is, leaving the Agent impli-
cit, can play a role in downsizing the distance between
the author (Xi Jinping) as President and the reader as
Chinese general public, and the distance between the
Chinese government as governing body and the common
people being governed (Yu & Wu, 2018). By removing
the distance (Ex. 13) and explicitating the Agent ‘‘中國人
民(People in China)’’ (Ex. 14) through covert grammati-
cal operation, the Chinese audience would feel involved
in such a great course, supporting and contributing to
the tasks enacted by the government. Meanwhile, a sense
of confidence and inclusiveness arise spontaneously.
The English version is aiming at introducing China’s
main work done and to be done in realizing ‘‘Chinese
dream’’ and making China’s voice heard. Hence, a long
explanation is added for ‘‘two centenary goals’’ in brack-
ets in Ex. 14, clearly introducing Chinese government’s
work to foreigners. In a similar vein, in Ex. 13, the mid-
dle clause (relational process) is adopted (‘‘our plan’’ as
Token) to give information instead of material action for
command. In Ex. 15, when introducing what is Chinese
dream, Xi’s words ‘‘我們追求中國人民的福祉，也追求
各國人民共同的福祉 (we pursue not just the interests of
the Chinese people, but also the common interests of the
world people),’’ which is a material process with ‘‘we’’
the Chinese people as Agent, shifts into a relational pro-
cess in the English translation (‘‘What we pursue is.’’).
‘‘We’’ and ‘‘our’’ here are exclusive, excluding the foreign
addressee(s), meaning ‘‘I+ my group,’’ referring to
Chinese government and Chinese people. The exclusive
‘‘we’’ represents a way of distancing, both from the
hearer and from what the speaker is saying, and it is nor-
mally associated with power (Inigo-Mora, 2004).
Therefore, the target reader of English OSAs, that is, for-
eigners with different cultural background, is viewed as
outsiders, or the Other, who are unfamiliar with but
interested in China out of curiosity, suspicion or even
competition (Yu & Wu, 2018).
Proposal Section: Initiating Plans. As can be seen in Figure 3,
effective clauses take dominion over the middle in both
Chinese and English versions. In the proposal section, Xi
presents future prospects, calls for collaborative efforts
in varied facets, offers specific approaches and raises
expectations. Excerpts from OSAs published in three
countries representing different country groupings, that
is, France (developed country), Pakistan (developing
country) and Bangladesh (least developed country) are
presented below, since there is no dramatic shifts of
Agency from Chinese to English across countries.
Pakistan
Ex. 16——.. 我們要加強戰略協調，深化務實合作，攜
手共謀發展，將中巴命運共同體打造成為中國同周邊國
家構建命運共同體的典範。
—— 我們要把兩國經貿戰略更緊密對接起來，深化經濟融
合。中巴經濟走廊位於絲綢之路經濟帶和21世紀海上絲
綢之路交匯處，是「一帶一路」倡議的重大項目……
—.We need to enhance strategic coordination, deepen
practical cooperation and work together for common devel-
opment. We will build the China-Pakistan community of
common destiny and set a fine example for such efforts by
China and its neighbouring countries.
—China and Pakistan need to align economic and trade
strategies more closely to deepen economic interdependence.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is located in where
theSilk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime
Silk Road meet. It is, therefore, a major project of the ‘‘Belt
and Road’’ initiative.
France
Ex. 17 責任擔當。中法攜手能夠改變世界，這一點在過去
55年已經得到多次驗證。當前，人類社會發展正處在關鍵
十字路口，需要大國擔當起應有的責任。中法都是聯合國
安理會常任理事國。我們期待同法方加強協調，維護多邊
主義，堅持以聯合國憲章宗旨和原則為基礎的國際關係基
本准則，攜手應對挑戰，共促世界繁榮穩定，推動構建
人類命運共同體。
A strong sense of responsibility. What has happened in the
past 55 years shows that China and France, working
together, could make a difference. At a time when humanity
stands at a critical juncture of development, major countries
must rise to the challenge. China and France are both per-
manent members of the UN Security Council. China hopes
to strengthen coordination with France to safeguard multila-
teralism and uphold the basic norms governing international
relations as underpinned by the purposes and principles of
the UN Charter. We need to join hands to tackle challenges,
promote global prosperity and stability and build a community
with a shared future for mankind.
Bangladesh
Ex. 18 —— 我們要加強南南合作，收穫共同發展的果實。
中方願繼續在力所能及的範圍內為孟方提供更多支持和
幫助，在防災減災、職業培訓、醫療衛生、應對氣候變
化、婦女兒童等領域同孟方加強互助合作……
— We need to enhance South-South cooperation for com-
mon development. China stands ready to offer more assis-
tance and support to Bangladesh to the best of its capability,
10 SAGE Open

enhance mutual assistance and cooperation with Bangladesh
in areas such as disaster prevention and mitigation, voca-
tional training, medical and health care services, climate
change and women and children.
Generally, all clauses in the three excerpts, both
Chinese and English, are effective-operative. Unified
form of ‘‘我們要(we need to)’’ appears in almost all the
items in the proposal section. The plans are proposed by
Xi Jinping, but with Theme-Agent inclusive ‘‘we’’ refer-
ring to both sides, assigning agentive roles to two coun-
tries and drawing closer the relationship. Taking a form
of suggestion, it positions itself between an offer and
command. Both versions in the proposal section recon-
strue Chinese government as an active initiator, posi-
tively seeking cooperation with the country of visit for
win-win results, contributing globally (Ex. 17 ‘‘promote
global prosperity and stability’’) rather than locally or
regionally. The vision of major-country diplomacy with
distinct Chinese features is clearly shown in the proposal,
emphasizing political metadiscourse like the initiative of
‘‘Belt and Road’’ and the concept of ‘‘community with a
shared future for mankind’’ (Ex. 16 and 17). The OSA,
voicing through the head of state, promotes China’s dis-
cursive power and emphasizes the great influence of
Chinese philosophy, Chinese vision and Chinese
approach (Sun, 2018) in dealing with global issues.
Additionally, a responsible and humanistic image of
China is also reconstrued. In Ex. 18, ‘‘中方(China side),’’
an explicit Agent, acts as a generous helper, offering
‘‘assistance and support.’’ Actually, in OSAs published
in least developed countries, such phenomenon fre-
quently occurs through ascribing more agentive roles to
Chinese government in helping them in a number of
ways. Therefore, Xi attempts, in his OSAs, to build an
image of China or Chinese government as the builder of
world peace, contributor of global development and
defender of international order (Xi, 2019).
Table 4 summarizes the linguistic patterns and image
shifts for both Chinese and English OSAs across two sec-
tions ( + stand for addition; 2stand for omission).
Reasons for Different Patterns and Images
The discussion above cannot be concluded that such par-
ticular grammatical structures (i.e., more effective clauses
in English translations than in Chinese source texts) are
deliberate choices of the translator. Whether the differ-
ence (i.e., the shift from Chinese middle to English effec-
tive in OSAs published in developed countries) lies in the
internal linguistic restrains of two languages, or diver-
gent cultural context needs to be further examined in this
section.
Linguistic Restrains. To start with, linguistically, Chinese
middle clauses can by and large be translated into
English middle. For instance, in Ex.1, ‘‘根基不斷加深’’
can be faithfully translated as ‘‘The foundation continues
to deepen,’’ in which no linguistic restrictions prohibit
such use in English. And the addition of external Agent
‘‘we’’ is not obligatory. Actually, a great number of mid-
dle clauses in Chinese are translated as middle ones in
English OSAs, for example in Table 5.
Another factor influencing the shift from Chinese
middle to English effective in translation might relate to
stylistic features. Is there any possibility that the genre of
OSAs by state leaders in English language favor effective
clauses, especially in the review section? To uncover this
mystery, a comparison of OSAs by native English lan-
guage leaders and Xi’s OSAs shall be made. Barack
Obama (2011), former president of the United States has
published an OSA on Financial Times before a coming
G20 summit, which is similar in terms of genre and regis-
ter. The data are shown in Table 6.
As revealed in Table 6, Obama’s original English
OSA employs extremely more middle clauses in the
review section (90%) and relatively less in the proposal
(29%). But as previously illustrated, Xi’s translated
English OSAs use much more effective clauses in both
two sections. Such difference justifies the consideration
that the motivation behind the grammatical shifts relates
more to context than to linguistic restrains and style.
The next section will focus on contextual impacts.
Table 4. Summary of AGENCY and Image.
Review Section Proposal Section
Language Image Language Image
Chinese
OSAs
developed: middle
developing: effective
least developed: effective
2exclusive ‘‘we’’
+inclusive ‘‘we’’
modest and equal active
humanistic
active, competent and inclusive
effective
+inclusive ‘‘we’’
active, responsible, competent and cooperative
English
OSAs
effective
+exclusive ‘‘we’’
active, competent and exclusive
Wang 11

Contextual Factors. From the above, we know that contex-
tual factors play a larger role in explaining the difference.
In SFL, three strata are contained in context: register,
genre and ideology (Martin, 1992). Register includes
three parameters, that is, field (the activity that the
speaker or writer participate in), tenor (the relationship
between participants) and mode (the medium of commu-
nication) (Halliday, 1978). In this study, field can be
specified as the aim of publishing the OSA; tenor is the
relationship between the author or translator and the
intended audience of the OSA; mode is written language;
genre is the OSA, and ideology is that within Chinese
society and culture.
China’s relations with the rest of the world are under-
going profound and momentous changes. On the one
hand, according to Xi, since 1949 China had experienced
a historic rise from standing up, growing rich to getting
strong (從站起來,富起來到強起來的歷史性飛躍). The
bright prospects for its great rejuvenation have opened
up and China has unswervingly joined the ranks of major
Table 5. Examples of Chinese Middle Shifted Into English Middle.
Chinese OSA English OSA
Lao
Ex. 19
兩國全面戰略合作夥伴關係不斷拓展。The comprehensive strategic
cooperative partnership
between the two countries has
been expanding.
Portugal
Ex. 20
中葡友好和合作駛入發展的快車道。China-Portugal friendship and
cooperation have embarked
on a fast lane of development.
Czechia
Ex. 21
建交67年來，中捷兩國和兩國人民傳統友誼不斷加深。Since the establishment of
diplomatic ties 67 years ago,
the traditional friendship
between our countries and
peoples has gone from
strength to strength.
Australia
Ex. 22
中澳關係走過了不平凡的歷程。Our relations have traversed an
extraordinary journey.
Germany
Ex. 23
中德關係戰略性不斷提升。/中德務實合作成果豐碩。/中德人文交流蓬勃發展。The strategic importance of
China-Germany relationship
continues to grow./China-
Germany practical
cooperation is yielding rich
fruits./ China-Germany cultural
and people-to-people
exchanges are flourishing.
Table 6. Distribution of Middle Clauses in Review and Proposal Section in English OSAs.
Author OSA publishing countries Review-middle Proposal-middle
Xi Jinping India 36% 24%
Australia 23% 11%
Pakistan 36% 19%
Saudi 31% 11%
Czechia 34% 21%
Bangladesh 38% 16%
Germany 48% 7%
Vietnam 31% 15%
Lao 30% 15%
Senegal 39% 27%
Panama 25% 28%
Portugal 21% 9%
France 34% 15%
Tajikistan 28% 15%
Barack Obama Britain 90% 29%
12 SAGE Open

countries in the world. On the other hand, the report of
the 19th National Congress clearly defines that China is
still in the primary stage of socialism. Since the founding
of New China, the CPC has been handling the three
issues of ‘‘being beaten, being starved and being scolded’’
(挨打,挨餓,挨罵), the first two of which have already
been solved bit by bit, while the third one is now the
toughest to tackle in the somewhat hostile international
atmosphere. Chinese government is striving to display a
prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and
harmonious national image of China both domestically
and internationally.
As an initial step heading toward the ultimate goal of
publication in foreign media, the Chinese OSA is com-
posed for translation by members of the CPC and gov-
ernment officials, with President Xi Jinping finalizes and
signs the articles, targeting at the general public in the
country of visit, but with the actual receivers as Chinese
citizens. Therefore, the Chinese OSA is mainly for
domestic publicity. Since the Chinese government is put-
ting more efforts on domestic ideological construction in
these years,
6
the discourse producer of Chinese OSAs is
seeking approval from the intended Chinese audience
(Yu & Wu, 2018) and attempting to guide them unswerv-
ingly follow the path of socialism with Chinese charac-
teristics. The discourse producers and the targeted
audiences generally share the same history, tradition and
cultural background. The inclusive ‘‘我們(we)’’ (refer-
ring to China and the country of visit) in OSAs may
leave the Chinese audience a sense of inclusiveness for its
splendid and struggling history, developed and prosper-
ous future, narrowing the distance between the author
and audiences. For OSAs published in developing and
least developed countries, in reviewing similar backward
modern and contemporary history of both countries, Xi
reconstrues China’s image as active and competent,
arousing sympathy, patriotism and confidence among
Chinese audiences. But for that in developed countries, a
modest and equal image is construed because modesty is
a good virtue deeply rooted in Chinese culture, and
equality between China and developed countries can eli-
cit the confidence of Chinese people in its chosen path,
guiding theories, political system and culture
7
since
Chinese people normally have the inferior self-image
when compared with developed countries. Such expres-
sions in the OSAs may help build a community of
Chinese nation, working together for common prosperity
and development.
The English OSA is translated by specific translation
team, involving experts from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and in-house translators, which imposes strict
political and ideological requirements on translation,
aiming at mass-medialization to voice China. Although
there has been growing coverage of China in the interna-
tional media, the image of China is generally unfavor-
able or even negative (Fang, 2018; Z. Peng, 2004; Xiang,
2013). Currently, a scholarly consensus is reached that
the pursuit of positive international image is a significant
part of Chinese foreign policy (Kopra, 2012). China’s
concern for ‘‘favorable international image as a responsi-
ble major power is a critical variable determining the
cost-benefit analysis behind international cooperation’’
(Johnston, 1998, p. 559). Since China’s 18th National
Congress of CPC in 2012, President Xi has paid highly
attention to the national image-building and China’s
international discursive power construction, and has
emphasized on the capacity building of international
communication of Chinese discourse through telling
China’s stories and spreading China’s voice on different
occasions (Xi, 2013a, 2013b, 2014, 2016a). As Kopra
(2012) demonstrates, the so-called Century of
Humiliation (1839–1949) and the unfair dispossession of
China’s status as the most sophisticated civilization in
the world is considered central to Chinese national iden-
tity. Therefore, China is expecting to be recognized in
the international stage as its desire to restore the state’s
respectable status internationally (Yu & Wu, 2018). And
that may explain well the reason why English OSAs are
trying to reconstrue China’s national image as active,
responsible and competent.
For another, President Xi proposed major-country
diplomacy with distinctive Chinese features at the
Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign
Affairs in 2014. That is why Xi’s OSAs started from
that year, ‘‘the first year of China’s major-country
diplomacy.’’ This policy underlines its important role in
building a community with a shared future for man-
kind. China’s strategy for major-country diplomacy
includes building new form of international relations
with developed countries based on mutual respect, fair-
ness, justice, and cooperation for mutual benefit,
strengthening its relations with developing countries
through ‘‘Belt and Road’’ initiative, and enhancing a
neighborhood community with a shared future guided
through the principle of ‘‘friendship, good faith, mutual
benefit and inclusiveness.’’ This explains exactly the
active role of China in English OSAs in initiating such
innovative diplomatic ideas. China and Chinese gov-
ernment as the initiator possessing the most agentive
roles in clauses in introducing China’s efforts and
encouraging win-win situation and further cooperation
is thus rationalized. Xi’s innovation in publishing
OSAs can be one of the ways to display the real image
of China, construing China as a civilized, active, com-
petent and responsible socialist country standing in the
East (J. Wen, 2016).
Wang 13

Conclusion
This study investigates China’s image construed in
President Xi Jinping’s OSAs and their English transla-
tions through linguistic choices within the system of
AGENCY and other interactive linguistic systems in
SFL. By analyzing both Chinese and English OSAs in a
self-established diachronic parallel corpus, a distinctive
pattern of AGENCY in two languages are found. For
English translations, effective clause prevails middle ones
in both review and proposal section, whereas for Chinese
texts, patterns of the two sections are not consistent. In
the review, the middle outnumbers the effective in OSAs
published in developed countries, but the situation is
reversed in developing countries. In the proposal, effec-
tive clause dominates across all OSAs. As for the image
of China construed through Agency, regarding the pro-
posal, both the Chinese and English OSAs project an
active, responsible, competent and cooperative image.
However, in the review, a modest, equal and inclusive
images in Chinese OSAs published in developed coun-
tries shift into active, competent and exclusive in their
English translations. For Chinese OSAs published in
non-developed countries, both versions show an active
and competent image, but there is a shift from inclusive-
ness to exclusiveness when voicing China in the review.
Instead of linguistic constrains, contextual considera-
tions account more for the differences in grammatical
patterns and images construed in OSAs of two lan-
guages. Specifically, Chinese government’s strong desire
to voice China and restore its favorable image in the
international stage drives the translation practice of
OSAs to shift in such a distinctive way. This study, there-
fore, proves that national image can be purposefully con-
structed through translation in internationalized and
mass-mediatized activities.
However, limitations still exist. For example, only
14 samples (Xi Jinping’s OSAs) are selected for analysis
instead of the whole corpus, and due to limited
resources collected, only one sample (Barack Obama’s
OSA) is chosen for comparable data. A comparable
corpus can be established to strengthen the argument.
Moreover, investigations into the interpersonal and
textual perspective of the same date can be further
reached, for example, mood and modality, personal
pronouns, cohesion and coherence, information pat-
tern, etc. It should also be noted that the Xinhua Net
and People Net has established several official data-
bases related to President Xi Jinping’s political dis-
course in Chinese language, like the database of Xi’s
keynote speeches, his published books and correspon-
dences. The self-established corpus of Xi’s OSAs could
contribute to the database and these are all resources
for political discourse analysis. Correspondent English
translations of Xi’s other types of discourse could be
collected for similar studies to reveal the general lin-
guistic style of President Xi Jinping.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared the following potential conflicts of interest
with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article: This is to acknowledge any financial interest or
benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your
research.
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
Undergraduate Teaching Reform Research Project
(22BYDSZ05) and Postgraduate Education Comprehensive
Reform Research and Practice Project (22XWYJGA28).
ORCID iD
Xi Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3772-1533
Notes
1. Political metadiscourse is discourse concerning the policies
and governing philosophies of the Chinese government
(Zhang, 2010), for example, ‘‘Chinese dream,’’ ‘‘Socialism
with Chinese characteristics for a new era,’’ ‘‘Belt and Road
Initiative.’’
2. According to international conventions, publishing OSA
before or during a state visit is often adopted by (vice) pre-
mier, whereas the president often accepts joint interview of
media from various countries (Xing, 2013). Therefore, Xi’s
OSA is an innovative approach to public diplomacy (J. Li,
2014).
3. According to SFL conventions, the names of linguistic sys-
tems are written in capital letters (for instance, the system
of AGENCY, VOICE, THEME), whereas the names of
structural functions are written with an initial capital (e.g.,
Theme and Rheme).
4. Xinhua Net: http://www.xinhuanet.com
5. People’s Daily Online: http://en.people.cn
6. Actions concerning domestic ideological construction in
recent years includes putting forward new political concepts
like ‘‘Chinese Dream,’’ ‘‘Four Confidence,’’ etc., to elicit
Chinese peoples’ patriotism, calling for people especially
party members to adopt an application named Learning the
Great Nation (學習強國Xue Xi Qiang Guo), assigning
reading and watching tasks everyday, and calling for
strengthening reform and innovation of ideological and
political theory courses, improving its system and advan-
cing the compiling of related textbooks, and integrating
ideological and political ideas into every subjects and disci-
pline at every level of education from primary to tertiary.
7. This is ‘‘Matters of Confidence’’ proposed by Xi (2016b).
14 SAGE Open

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