The core concepts of Chinese political discourse reflect the country’s political and governance philosophy, and the emotional attitude of target readers towards the English translation is closely related to the effectiveness of communication. This article examines the diachronic revisions of the English translation of the core concept “shehui geming” in Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China through sentiment analysis and semantic prosody, comparing the attitudinal differences between the Chinese side and the American side. The study finds significant differences in sentiment towards the two translation versions “social revolution”and “social transformation”,with the Chinese side having roughly equivalent emotional attitude towards both versions, while the American side demonstrates a more positive sentiment towards “social transformation”. Based on the outcomes of the sentiment and prosody analysis,this paper delves into the reasons behind the differences in emotional attitudes between the Chinese and the American side from the perspectives of conceptual history and lexical collocation. Lastly,implications for the translation and international communication of Chinese political discourse are proposed,including digital technology promotion and empathic communication contribution.