This paper studies the English translation of political metaphors in The Governance of China II from the perspective of cognitive construal and explores the cognitive mechanism for their translation. It is found that the four dimensions of cognitive construal—specificity, focusing, prominence and perspective, are crucial for the translation of political metaphors in The Governance of China II. Due to the different cognitive construal mechanisms of readers from different countries or ethnic backgrounds, translators can adjust the cognitive construal to meet the expectations of target language readers. In the process of translating political texts, translators should take into account readers’ ideology, social and economic development philosophy, national image, and cultural exchanges. This study helps to promote people’s understanding of translation process from the perspective of cognitive construal, and provides some reference for the translation practice of political metaphor.