WAR as slogan, HAT as strategy: metaphorical construction of poverty alleviation in Chinese political discourse

Political metaphors play a crucial role in shaping public perception and legitimizing policy, yet their use in China’s poverty alleviation discourse remains underexplored. This study investigates the major conceptual metaphors in Chinese governmental discourse on poverty alleviation, drawing on a 33,104-word corpus compiled from official reports over the past decade. Following the Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIPVU) procedure for metaphor identification, the study identifies four dominant source domains: WAR, PATH, COMPETITION, and HAT. Guided by Charteris-Black’s Critical Metaphor Analysis, the study examines how and why these metaphors are strategically employed in the Chinese political context. The analysis reveals that metaphors serve not only to facilitate policy communication and mobilize public support, but also to project a positive national image and position China as a model in global poverty reduction. This study contributes to political metaphor research by identifying the HAT metaphor as a culturally specific framing device in Chinese poverty alleviation discourse, offering both theoretical and practical insights for cross-cultural metaphor studies and policy communication.