A Functionalist Perspective on the English Translation of Sino-Russian Energy Cooperation Texts

Abstract

Amid the evolving global energy landscape and the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Russia energy cooperation has become a key pillar of their strategic partnership. Accurate English translation of related policy documents is crucial for international understanding and discourse dissemination. These texts are not merely linguistic artifacts but convey political, technical, and communicative intentions, requiring careful balancing of policy meaning, terminological precision, and audience comprehension. Grounded in Functionalist Translation Theory, this study analyzes representative energy cooperation texts and their English versions, focusing on translation purpose, communicative function, and audience orientation. Through comparative analysis of style, syntax, and discourse strategies, it demonstrates how functionalist principles guide effective translation of politically and economically specialized texts. The findings suggest that translators can enhance communicative effectiveness and international acceptability through stylistic adjustment, syntactic refinement, and terminological reconstruction, ensuring that policy intentions are accurately conveyed while meeting target readers' cultural expectations. The study contributes both theoretically-by extending functionalist translation theory to political and economic discourse-and practically-by offering concrete strategies for translating international energy policy documents, thereby supporting global communication and promoting the visibility of Sino-Russian energy cooperation.