America and China
中美关系

Pleased to meet you
很高兴见到你

Nov 16th 2009 | BEIJING
From Economist.com

Barack Obama’s trip to China may encourage a warming of relations
奥巴马访华或将促进双边关系

                                                          AP

MUTUAL suspicion and mutual attraction are powerful and competing forces in the relationship between China and America. President Barack Obama hopes his first visit to China, which began on Sunday November 15th, will enable the two countries to work more closely on global problems, from climate change to the economy. His hosts appear to agree, but misgivings are still abundant.

在中美关系中，互相猜疑与互相吸引是两股斗争着的强大力量。奥巴马总统希望自己的初次访华（于11月15日星期天展开）能够促成双方在气候变化以及经济等国际问题上更加密切的合作。中国人民似乎也是有意愿的，但疑虑依旧很多。

Mr Obama began his trip in Shanghai, China’s financial capital. Part of his mission was to reassure city leaders that America would be an enthusiastic participant in the World Expo which is due to be held there next year. The American government—as is its custom for such events—will not pay for a pavilion. Corporate sponsorship has been proving hard to drum up in these troubled economic times. To help the effort, America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is travelling with Mr Obama, paid a visit to the half-built pavilion. The leader of America’s pavilion committee, Jose Villarreal, introduced her by saying she would “personally build the pavilion brick by brick if she had to”.

奥巴马总统访华第一站是上海，中国的金融之都。奥巴马此行的部分目的是让上海的市领导放心，表示美国将热情参与上海2010年世博会。依其惯例，美国政府将不会资助展馆的建设。而在如今困难的经济环境下，也很难吸引到企业赞助。为了协助奥巴马完成这一任务，随行的国务卿希拉里女士参观了完工一半的世博会场馆。美国展区主席乔斯•维拉利尔（Jose Villarreal）在介绍希拉里时说，“如果必要的话，她（希拉里）会自己一块砖一块砖地盖建展区”。

Such rhetoric may help to dispel what could have become a dark cloud over the relationship (China regards putting on the World Expo as something akin to staging the Olympic Games, and would have been deeply resentful of any sign of American diffidence). But Mr Obama still has to tread carefully during his trip, which ends on Wednesday. He has to balance his desire to secure China’s co-operation on global matters against demands at home that he takes China to task over issues such as human rights and trade.

这种措辞或许会有利于驱散可能笼罩双边关系的阴云（中国将上海世博会与北京奥运会放在同等的高度，如果美国对世博会表现出缺乏信心就很可能惹中国生气）。但是奥巴马总统此行访华（周三结束）还是得谨慎行事。一方面，奥巴马总统得努力争取中国再国际事务上的合作，另一方面，他还得照顾到美国国内对他的要求 — 促使中国妥善处理人权及贸易问题。

Mr Obama’s delicate approach was evident during his first high-profile engagement in China—what was billed as a “town hall” meeting with young people in Shanghai. China apparently had few qualms about limiting Mr Obama’s audience for this event. It was not relayed live on national television, and only shown in ropey quality on the internet (though it could still be watched in China on the White House’s website). But China kept in place its block on Facebook, a social-networking site on which the White House invited internet users to join a live discussion of the meeting.

在奥巴马中国行的第一次备受关注的活动中（被宣传为“市政厅”会议，与上海的年轻人见面），他的良苦用心可见一斑。毫无疑问，中国显然对参加这次活动的听众进行过筛选。中国国家电台并没有对其进行现场直播，而只是在网站上公布了劣质的视频（尽管依旧可以通过白宫网站在中国看到这一录像）。但是，中国还没有解除对Facebook（白宫邀请广大的互联网用户在此社交网站上来参与现场讨论）的封锁。

In his answers to politely put questions from an audience carefully selected by Chinese officials, Mr Obama avoided direct criticism of China’s government. He spoke at some length about the merits of internet freedom and of how the internet could change China’s “status quo”. But he made no mention of China’s denial since July of internet access to millions of its people in the strife-torn far western region of Xinjiang.

在回答由中国官方精心选择的一名观众的礼貌提问时，奥巴马总统没有对中国政府进行直接批评。他说了很多关于网络自由的优势，以及互联网将如何能够改变中国的“现状”。但是至于中国政府自7月份西部省份新疆发生暴力冲突之后便对新疆人民（几千万人口）实行全面禁网一事，奥巴马总统则没有提及。

Mr Obama’s comments on human rights focused more on how America had benefitted from respecting them (albeit imperfectly) than China had suffered from violating them. He said freedom of expression, worship, access to information and of religion were “universal rights” that should be available to everyone “whether they are in the United States, China or any nation.”

奥巴马总统在人权方面更侧重地谈及了美国如何从尊重人权（尽管不算完美）中获利，而较少涉及侵犯人权对中国带来多大苦难。他说，言论自由、信仰自由、信息自由以及宗教自由是“众人皆享的权利”，“居住在美国、中国或是其他任何国家”的人都应享有。

In Beijing, where he is set to meet Chinese leaders and tour historical sites, Mr Obama is likely to be just as cautious. Although there is little expectation now of a detailed global agreement on climate change at a UN conference in Copenhagen in December, Mr Obama is still eager to present a more united front with China on global warming. Signs that China is taking the problem seriously could help him to get climate-change legislation through Congress. Mr Obama also wants to cool tensions over trade. China has been accusing America of imposing protectionist tariffs on some of its products, while many American politicians are resentful of what they see as Chinese efforts to boost exports by manipulating its currency. The president will probably avoid repeating such accusations in public.

到了北京（将在这里会见中国领导人以及参观历史遗址），奥巴马总统很可能还是会同样谨慎。尽管现在很少有人指望12月在哥本哈根举行的联合国会议上会讨论出一份详细的气候变化全球协定，但是奥巴马总统还是迫切地希望在全球变暖问题上中美双方能以一个更加统一的形象展现在世界面前。中国在气候变化问题上表现出严肃认真的态度，将有利于奥巴马提倡的气候变化立法通过国会。奥巴马总统还希望缓和双方的贸易紧张关系。一直以来，中国都指责美国对中国的某些产品施加地方保护性关税，而许多美国政客则认为中国政府通过操纵人民币汇率来刺激出口，对此也老有埋怨。在公开场合下，奥巴马总统可能不会重提这些指责。

Mr Obama’s central message is that China should not view America as a threat, no matter what its grievances over American policy toward Taiwan, Tibet or human rights. Mr Obama told the audience in Shanghai that America did not want to contain China’s rise, nor impose any particular system of government on it. He avoided, however, saying how he would handle America’s arms sales to Taiwan, a critical point of contention that—however much America may wish otherwise—China is not ready to ignore.

奥巴马总统要传达的中心信息时：中国不应视美国为威胁，不管中国如何埋怨美国的台湾、西藏及人权政策。他在上海时告诉观众，美国不想遏制中国崛起，也不想强行要求中国采取任何特殊的政府组织方式。然而，他并没有谈到自己将如何处理美国对台军售一事，这也是中国还没有打算忽视的一个双边争议焦点（不管美国多希望焦点能是别的问题）。