This research addresses the understudied role of interpreters in shaping international political narratives. It focuses on China, the world's largest developing nation, and its increasingly open and globally engaged stance since the implementation of its reform and opening-up (ROU) policy. The ROU metadiscourse, encompassing themes of reform, economic development, and international engagement, is central to justifying China's sociopolitical system. This study contributes to the 'outward turn' in interpreting studies by examining how government interpreters mediate and (re)construct this discourse in English. Unlike Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which typically focuses on negative aspects of discourse, this study employs a novel corpus-based Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) approach. This methodology allows for a systematic and objective analysis of how interpreters shape the positive aspects of China's international engagement discourse, highlighting their agency and potential impact on the East-West power balance.

The study draws upon existing scholarship in interpreting studies, bilingual communication, discourse studies, corpus linguistics, and social and political sciences. It acknowledges the limitations of traditional CDA in capturing the positive elements of discourse and introduces PDA as a complementary framework. The literature review cites works advocating for PDA's application in analyzing progressive and empowering discourses in various contexts, including anti-racism movements, anti-colonial struggles, and development narratives in the Global South. However, it notes the relative scarcity of PDA studies in translation and interpreting, especially those employing corpus-based methods. The study highlights the importance of examining the role of interpreters as active agents in shaping discourse, moving beyond a purely mechanical view of their function. It also emphasizes the increasing interdisciplinarity of research in digital humanities (DH), leveraging computational methods for analyzing large datasets.

The study uses a corpus-based PDA approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The corpus, CE-PolitDisCorp, contains 20 years (1998-2017) of data from China's Premier-Meets-the-Press conferences, encompassing 310,924 tokens (170,260 in Chinese, 140,664 in English). The analysis focuses on Subcorpus A (Chinese premiers' answers) and Subcorpus B (English interpretations). The study employs AntConc software to analyze lexical frequency, diachronic trends, and collocational patterns. Key concepts related to the ROU metadiscourse – development, economy, reform, international engagement, market, stability, openness, modernization, socialism, and harmony – were identified and their frequencies compared across Chinese and English. The analysis examines interpreters' mediation at the lexical, diachronic, and collocational levels, paying particular attention to keywords related to global involvement (e.g., 'global,' 'world,' 'international'). Specific collocational patterns, such as 'international community' and 'international practices,' are analyzed to understand their ideological and strategic implications. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating the qualitative insights of PDA with the quantitative analysis provided by corpus linguistics, ensuring objectivity and systematicity in the findings.

The analysis reveals a consistent pattern of interpreters amplifying key concepts and themes related to China's ROU metadiscourse in English. There is a 17.75% overall increase in the frequency of relevant lexical items in the English interpretations compared to the Chinese originals. This is evident across all thematic categories, except one. The increased prominence of these lexical items signifies a strengthening of China's official discourse and a reinforcement of its institutional ideology in the English renditions. Furthermore, the study identifies a diachronic shift in China's discourse. The frequency of terms relating to global engagement increases across the three administrations analyzed (Jiang Zemin-Zhu Rongji, Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping-Li Keqiang). This demonstrates a progressive shift from a relatively closed, inward-looking approach to a more globally proactive stance. The analysis of collocations reveals further nuances. The frequent use of 'international community' and 'international practices' is shown to serve different strategic purposes. 'International community' lends legitimacy to China's claims and emphasizes its global membership. 'International practices' functions as a justificatory device, particularly prominent in the earlier administrations, suggesting a more defensive posture. However, this pattern decreases in the Xi Jinping era, reflecting a shift towards a more assertive and proactive role on the global stage. The frequent association of 'global' with 'economy' in the English corpus indicates China's increasing integration into the global economic system, particularly noticeable after the 2008 financial crisis. The spike in mentions of 'globalization' in the Xi Jinping administration reveals China's active championing of globalization at a time of global uncertainty.

The findings demonstrate the significant agency of interpreters in shaping China's international image and narrative. Their strategic choices regarding lexical emphasis and collocation contribute to a more positive and assertive representation of China's global engagement. The observed diachronic shift in discursive strategies reflects China's evolving role in the international community, moving from a defensive posture to one of increasing assertiveness and leadership. The study's findings have implications for understanding the dynamics of intercultural communication, particularly in politically charged contexts. It highlights how interpreters can act as active participants in the construction of national narratives and the negotiation of power relations on the global stage. The corpus-based PDA approach provides a rigorous and systematic method for investigating these dynamics, offering a valuable tool for future research in the field.

This study contributes significantly to interpreting studies by demonstrating the active role of interpreters in shaping national narratives and influencing global perceptions. The corpus-based PDA approach proves effective in revealing nuanced aspects of discursive mediation. Future research could expand upon these findings by analyzing other discursive events, incorporating text mining and machine learning techniques, and extending the analysis to other languages and contexts. Further investigation into the training and selection of government interpreters could provide crucial insights into the shaping of international communication strategies.

The study's findings are based on a specific corpus covering 20 years of data from a single type of communicative event. The generalizability of the findings to other contexts may be limited. Future research should incorporate data from other discursive events and potentially a broader range of time periods to increase the robustness and scope of the analysis. The focus on government-affiliated interpreters limits the exploration of diversity in interpreting practices. Furthermore, exploring the cognitive processes involved in interpreting decisions could further illuminate the findings.