[2008.07.12] 中国和台湾：首先，我们攻占百货商店…

China and Taiwan
中国和台湾

First, we take the department stores…
首先，我们攻占百货商店…

Jul 10th 2008 | BEIJING AND TAIPEI
From The Economist print edition, the original post is here.

After decades worrying about a mainland invasion, Taiwan is now courting one
数十年来台湾担心大陆入侵，如今却汲汲以求

IT WAS listed on the information board at Beijing’s Capital Airport as an international flight. It departed from the international terminal. Passengers had to clear customs and immigration before boarding. Upon landing in Taipei, the crew of Air China 185 made a cabin announcement warning passengers against taking fruit into the “country” they were about to visit. But on no account would anyone in China dare call this non-stop journey an “international” flight. Like the check-in clerk and the immigration official at Beijing’s airport, the flight’s co-pilot can only giggle uncomfortably when asked to explain the contradictions. It is, after all, an article of faith in Beijing that “Taiwan is part of China”.

在北京首都机场的信息公告板上这次航班被列为国际航班。它从国际航空站离开，登机前乘客需办理清关和出境手续。着陆台北后，国航185的乘务员在机舱广播中警告乘客不要带水果进入这个他们即将访问的”国家”。然而在中国的任何人都决不敢称此次直达旅行为”国际”航班。当被问起这些自相矛盾之处，航班的副驾驶员只能尴尬地傻笑，一如北京机场的地勤人员和出入境官员。毕竟，”台湾是中国的一部分”是北京不言自明的信念。

The delicate and sometimes bellicose wrangling between China and Taiwan has long demanded painstaking terminological finesse. The opening on July 4th of regular direct charter flights between China and Taiwan marks important progress between the two sides. But the stubborn persistence of such word games also shows how far apart the two sides remain.

长期以来，中国与台湾地区间微妙（有些时候甚至敏感）的争执，需要令人痛苦的术语技巧。7月4日，中台开通了定期的直达包机航线，这标志着双方的重大进展。不过对上述文字游戏的顽固坚持，显示双方依然貌合神离。

As indeed do the “direct” flights. For a variety of reasons, suchas national security concerns and the lack of standard cross-strait aviation agreements, these charters must still take a lengthy detour through Hong Kong airspace. This is less cumbersome than the normal routine, which requires a landing and brief stopover in Hong Kong (or nearby Macau). But it still adds an hour and nearly 1,000km (625 miles) to the journey from Beijing to Taipei.

所谓的”直达”航班也是如此。出于一系列理由，如国家安全问题，如海峡两岸缺乏飞行协议标准，这些包机航班仍须绕远经过香港航区。当然，这比在香港（或附近的澳门）经停的旧例已经方便不少。不过即便只是绕行，也给北京到台北的航程增加了1个小时，近1, 000公里（625英里）。

Niggling details aside, the arrival of the first flight on July 4th was treated as a big breakthrough. The plane was greeted in Taipei with celebratory arches of water blasted from airport fire-engines. Bigwigs on both sides were also in full-gush mode. Lien Chan, former chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party, said the flights “would make people around the world proud of this generation of Chinese.” Wang Yi, Beijing’s senior official dealing with Taiwan saw off the first flight from Beijing, speaking of “a new start” and “a rare opportunity for development”.

抛开细节不谈，7月4日首航的到来被认为是一大突破。为向该航班致意，台北动用机场消防车，喷出欢迎的水龙。双方要人亦倾巢而出。台湾执政党国民党前主席连战说，该次航班”会让世界所有的人为我们这一代中国人感到骄傲。”北京对台事务高级官员王毅在北京为本次首航送行，称之为”新的起点”和”难得的发展机遇”。

For all the hullabaloo, though, these flights marked only an incremental advance. Similar flights began running five years ago during limited holiday periods, and have increased in frequency since. None of that dimmed the enthusiasm of the mainland tourists who enjoyed the chance to see for themselves a place they had heard so much about-for good and ill. Nearly 700 made the trip during the first weekend. They spent a short time taking in a carefully selected set of sights in Taipei before heading off to other parts of the island. One sensitive site they were not allowed to visit was the memorial to Chiang Kai-shek, a former KMT leader and bitter foe of Mao Zedong who brought his government to Taiwan in 1949 after losing China’s civil war.

动静虽大，这些航班不过标志着更进一步而已。类似航班从5年前便开始在特定假日时段运行，此后还增加了班次。不过这一切并没有减弱大陆游客的热情，他们兴致勃勃地借此机会亲眼目睹这个耳熟能详却毁誉不一的地方。在第一个周末，有近700人加入了这一旅行。启程前往岛内其他地方前，他们在台北一些仔细挑选好的景点短暂停留。有个敏感的景点他们不许参观：蒋介石纪念馆。蒋介石是前国民党领袖，毛泽东死敌，在输掉中国内战后于1949年率领他的政府退至台湾。

The Chinese tourists were also prohibited from leaving their chaperoned groups. Taiwanese travel agents said this reflected concerns on both sides. Mainland authorities did not want to run the risk of attempted defections, and Taiwan wanted to keep potential spies from roaming where they should not. Exceptions, however, were made for shopping. Johnny Tsai, manager of the China Times Travel Service, said his group of 109 mainlanders were allowed to run off on their own at a department store in the southern city of Kaohsiung, and spent heroically there.

中国游客亦不得离开受监护的旅游团。台旅行社说这反映了双方的顾虑。大陆当局不愿冒有人试图叛逃的风险，而台湾则不希望可能的间谍现身他们不应该去的地方。不过，购物除外。中国时代旅行社(意译)的Johnny Tsai说，他的旅行团109名大陆游客都被允许在南部城市高雄的百货商店自由活动，结果是大肆血拼。

For the newly installed KMT government, that may be as important as any boost to the politics of cross-strait relations. Since taking office in May, President Ma Ying-jeou has faced pressure to reinvigorate the economy. Annual growth remains above the 4% mark and inflation below it, but share prices have been tumbling and concerns are growing over widening inequality and looming economic stagnation. Soaring fuel prices and a global slowdown limit Mr Ma’s room for manoeuvre. An influx of well-heeled, free-spending mainland tourists therefore seems just the ticket. Some economists predict it could add as much as 0.5 percentage points to the annual growth rate.

对于履新的国民党政府来说，这可能与两岸政治关系的任何进展同样重要。马英九”总统”自5月上任后，面临使经济复兴的压力。台湾经济年增长率停留在略高于4%大限，通胀则略低4%，然而股价正在下跌，对贫富差距扩大和经济停滞隐现的担忧在加剧。高涨的油价和全球经济放缓限制了马英九先生的操作空间。因此，衣着光鲜、挥金如土的大陆游客的流入，就像天赐尤物。有经济学家预计他们将为台湾的年增长率增加多达0.5个百分点。

Others doubt that. Mr Tsai wonders whether his first carefully selected group of the rich and “high-level” will be typical of future visitors. Chen-wei Lin of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says that the economic benefits of mainland tourism are unknown and that Mr Ma is overstretching when he promises worried Taiwanese that Chinese tourism will save their economy. Mr Lin also faults Mr Ma for failing to secure a matching cargo-flight arrangement, which he believes would be far more lucrative for Taiwan.

其他人对此有所保留。Tsai先生就怀疑他这个精挑细选、富有且”高端”的首航旅游团是否会成为未来游客的主流。对手民进党的林陈威说，大陆游客带来的经济效益尚未明了，马先生承诺忧心忡忡的台湾民众中国旅游团将拯救台湾经济，实属言过其实。同时，林先生指责马先生未能促成同等的货运航班安排，他相信这对台湾来说有利得多。

Nevertheless, the talk of new beginnings is not all hype. After eight years in which it shunned and berated the previous president, Chen Shui-bian of the more independence-minded DPP, China was pleased to see the KMT return to power in March with the election of Mr Ma.

不管如何，”新的开始”的言论并非纯属虚构。8年来，中国回绝并严厉斥责前”总统”陈水扁（他出身更倾台独的民进党），如今乐于见到马先生在3月的选举获胜，使国民党重掌政权。

By the time he took office, China had suffered a string of setbacks. Deadly unrest in Tibet had brought tension with the outside world. International sourness still lingers over its human-rights record, its links with repugnant regimes in Myanmar, Sudan and elsewhere, and its fitness to host the Olympics. It gained much kudos for its handling of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan in March. But in international affairs, China still badly needs to see something go right somewhere, and for the moment Taiwan is going least wrong.

在马英九上台之前，中国遭遇一系列不顺。西藏致命的骚乱让它与外部世界的关系骤然紧张。国际上对其不满依旧着眼于人权纪录，它与缅甸、苏丹和其他地方恶政权的联系，以及它是否适合举办奥运。在5月四川的毁灭性地震灾难中，它处理得当，赢得了巨大的声誉。但在国际事务中，中国依然极度需要让事情对路。此时此刻，台湾事务最对路。

译者：misser   http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12632&extra=page%3D1