As the United States gears up for “great power competition” with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), accurate translation of Chinese sources is increasingly important. Different translations can lead to different inferences about intentions, which in turn can affect policy analysis. As an example, this article looks at the November 2020 study on China by the Department of State’s Policy Planning Office, which made key inferences about China’s long-term intentions based, in part, on a problematic translation and decontextualization of key phrases in a speech by China’s leader, Xi Jinping.