{"slug": "ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns", "title": "AI can make China’s political language sound more threatening, scholar warns", "summary": "Li Yan, a professor at Xian Fanyi University, warned in an article published Wednesday in Chinese Social Sciences Today that AI translations of China's political language can make it sound more threatening to overseas audiences, urging human translators to work alongside AI to preserve context and improve understanding of Beijing's policies.", "body_md": "# AI can make China’s political language sound more threatening, scholar warns\n\nLi Yan says human expertise is vital to retaining context in AI translations of Beijing’s policy ideas for overseas audiences\n\nChina is being urged to use human translators to refine AI renderings of its political messaging, amid concern that literal translations can make Beijing’s language sound more threatening abroad.\n\nAn 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.\n\nAs AI takes on more translation work, human translators should work alongside the technology, according to Li Yan, a professor at Xian Fanyi University.\n\n“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.\n\n[cultural soft power](https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3362548/what-visit-chinas-ai-labs-reveals-about-battle-global-soft-power?module=inline&pgtype=article)and ability to participate in global governance.”\n\nLi called on Chinese translators to strengthen their ability to refine AI translations according to context, audience and purpose.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3365635/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-08-29 06:00:16+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-29 06:19:12.517479+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "natural-language-processing", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Li Yan", "Xian Fanyi University", "Chinese Social Sciences Today", "Chinese Academy of Social Sciences"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-can-make-chinas-political-language-sound-more-threatening-scholar-warns.jsonld"}}