Interpreter-Mediated Diplomatic Discourse Represented and Reframed in Global News: A Case Study of China’s Statement at the General Debate of the 75th Session of United Nations General Assembly

Abstract In 2020, against the backdrop of the pandemic, climate change and the increasingly tense global situation, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the General Debate of the 75th Session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which attracted extensive media coverage. This research employs corpus-based critical discourse analysis to explore how the Chinese original discourse was mediated by the interpreter and how the interpreter-mediated discourse was further represented and reframed by global news. The lenses of optional shifts and reframing are adopted respectively for intertextual analysis. Results indicate that the interpreter mediates the Statement through explicitation of information, reduction of information, explicitation of logic, and change of voice. Furthermore, the interpreted text and optional shifts within the text are generally well received by global news outlets. However, due to news outlets’ highly selective quotation process and the use of temporal and spatial framing and labelling strategies, the interpreted text may be reframed to construct narratives unexpected by China. This study sheds light on the dynamic process of international communication of diplomatic discourse, during which both the interpreter and global media outlets play crucial roles apart from the source speaker.