相比美国对中国的“围堵”战略本身，中国更应该担忧为何自己的邻国会欢迎美国的战略。
SYMBOLIC gestures come in all shapes and sizes, but few as imposing as that of the USS George Washington, a ship more than three football-pitches long, and capable of carrying 85 aircraft and more than 6,200 people. But even symbols of such massive heft can be interpreted in various ways. The George Washington has just been in the South China Sea, off the coast of Danang, once home to one of the American army’s biggest bases in Vietnam. Fifteen years after the opening of diplomatic relations, and 35 years since the end of the Vietnam war, the carrier’s visit, and the joint naval exercises that followed, were striking tokens of reconciliation. But observers in China saw a different sort of gesture: not so much a handshake with a former enemy; more a brandished fist towards a potential one, their own country.
虽说象征性姿态的形式与规模多种多样，但却很少有像美国“乔治·华盛顿号”核动力航空母舰那样威风凛凛的。“华盛顿号”核动力航母比三个足球场的总长还要长，能够运载85架直升飞机，可承载的人数超过6200人，是世界上吨位最大的航母之一。但即便是如此重量级的象征性姿态，也可以用多种方式进行解读。前不久“华盛顿号”核动力航母穿过南中国海，停靠在越南的岘港。岘港曾经是美国军队在越南建立的最大军事基地之一。在美越建交15周年、越战结束35周年之际，美国“华盛顿号”核动力航母访问越南，以及随后进行的美越联合海上军事演习，都象征着美越两国的和解。但中国的观察家看到的却是这一象征性姿态的另一层含义：没有谁会和曾经的敌人（越南）如此友好地握手，此举更像是美国在向其潜在的敌人——中国——挥拳示威。
Vituperative Chinese commentators detected an old bogey: an American attempt to “contain” China by bolstering alliances with its neighbours. China’s leaders were more restrained (or perhaps just slower off the mark). But the South China Morning Post reported that Hu Jintao, the president, was in enough of a huff about this and other slights to contemplate delaying a visit to America. Just when the ice that formed after the Sino-American climate-change tiff in Copenhagen in December seemed to have melted, a new chill has set in. “Sweet-mouthed” American politicians, lamented Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper, “stab you in the back when you are not looking.”
指责美国的中国评论员发现了一个令人担忧的古老问题：美国试图通过加强与中国邻国的结盟关系来“围堵”中国。中国领导人对此则较为谨慎（亦或只是行动更为迟缓一些）。不过据香港《南华早报》报道，国家主席胡锦涛对此恼怒不已，预期将推迟访美的时间。去年12月份在哥本哈根气候峰会上，中美之间就在气候变化议题上起了争执；正当那次争执所凝结的寒冰似乎就要融化时，一股新的寒流又到来了。中国《环球时报》英文版悲叹道，“口蜜腹剑的”美国政客“在他不注意时在背后捅了他一刀。”
Chinese analysts can point to an impressive array of American “provocations” to justify their fulminations. They cited reports that America is in talks on nuclear co-operation with Vietnam, and that, in an apparent reversal for its non-proliferation efforts, the Obama administration is not insisting that Vietnam forswear enriching its own uranium. As with America’s 2008 nuclear deal with India, China scented double standards.
中国的分析家能够举出一系列令人难忘的美国“挑衅行为”来证明他们的严词谴责是正当的。他们援引报道称，美国正与越南秘密谈判核合作的事宜；奥巴马行政分支并未强调越南必须放弃铀浓缩，这明显与美国在核不扩散方面的努力背道而驰。正如2008年美国与印度的核交易一样，中国此次也嗅出了美国在核不扩散上的双重标准。
China also faced an unsettling experience in July, at the annual ASEAN Regional Forum organised by the Association of South-East Asian Nations. This usually soporific security talking-shop, held this year in Hanoi, saw Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, declare the South China Sea a “national interest”. When 12 of the 27 countries there spoke up for a new approach to solving their maritime disputes, China sniffed co-ordination—nay, conspiracy—especially when Vietnam swiftly stepped up its protests about Chinese activities in disputed waters.
在7月份由东盟（ASEAN）组织的年度地区论坛上，中国也遭遇了一次令人不安的经历。这种通常不具有实质性意义的安全会议，今年在越南首都河内召开，美国国务卿希拉里·克林顿在会上宣称，南中国海是美国的“国家利益”。当27个参会国家中的其中12个支持采取新方案来解决他们之间的海事纠纷时，尤其当越南迅速对中国在争议海域的活动表示强烈抗议时，中国嗅出了这是美国与这些国家之间的“合作”——不，其实是合谋。
Before her jaunt to Vietnam, the George Washington had been taking part in joint exercises with South Korean forces. Respecting Chinese sensitivities, she did not exercise in the Yellow Sea, just off China’s coast. But a Pentagon spokesman has said she will do so “in the near future”. This comes as America’s ties with South Korea have been strengthened—and China’s frayed—by the destruction of a naval vessel, the Cheonan, in March. South Korea and America, backed by an international inquiry, have blamed the sinking on a North Korean torpedo. The North has denied responsibility and China has refused to finger its awkward ally.
在“华盛顿号”核动力航母访问越南之前，曾参加了美国与韩国军方进行的联合军事演习。鉴于中国对美韩联合军事演习的敏感，“华盛顿号”核动力航母没有参加在黄海海域进行的演习，黄海刚好在中国的海岸线外。但是一位五角大楼发言人称，“在不久的将来”“华盛顿号”核动力航母将会进入黄海海域。今年3月，韩国海军舰艇“天安号”被朝鲜击沉，“天安号”事件造成的美韩联盟的加强，以及与中国的摩擦，促成了这次美韩联合军事演习。韩国与美国，在国际质疑的声援之下，责备朝鲜使用鱼雷击沉“天安号”的行径。但是朝鲜方面否认自己担有责任，而中国也拒绝指认自己拙劣的盟友（朝鲜）。
As the American navy has roamed China’s neighbourhood, senior officials have fanned out over Asia. In Indonesia Robert Gates, the defence secretary, upset human-rights activists and delighted the government by resuming links to Kopassus, the army’s special forces. William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, has been to four South-East Asian countries.
随着美国海军周游中国众多邻国之时，美国高级官员在亚洲的活动也成扇形之势散开。在印度尼西亚，美国国防部长罗伯特·盖茨与印尼的特种部队（Kopassus）重新获得联系，此举使得印尼政府十分高兴；但由于此前该特种部队在印尼群岛上糟糕的人权记录，此举使印尼的人权活动家极为不安。美国负责政治事务的副国务卿威廉·伯恩斯，也已经访问了4个东南亚国家。
It all amounts to what Douglas Paal of the Carnegie Endowment, a Washington think-tank, has called “the most comprehensive burst of diplomatic and military activity in Asia, particularly South-East Asia, in decades” from an American administration. It is not surprising that many in China see all this as part of a new containment doctrine. Many in America do, too. By this analysis, Barack Obama took office committed to good relations with China, and ready to welcome it as a great power in return for China’s accepting the global responsibilities that go with that status. Then a series of setbacks convinced him to stand up to China with a more muscular strategy. The “sweet mouths” spout charm just the same; but containment is now the game.
正如华盛顿智库卡内基国际和平基金会（Carnegie Endowment）知名中国问题专家包道格（Douglas Paal）所言，这一切实际上是美国行政分支“几十年来在亚洲，尤其是东南亚，外交与军事活动最全面的爆发”。所以许多中国人将所有这一切视为美国新的围堵政策的一部分，也并不奇怪。而且美国也有许多人与中国人的看法一样。根据这一分析，巴拉克·奥巴马在就任总统时承诺与中国维持良好的关系，同时当中国开始承担大国地位伴随而来的全球责任时，美国将会以欢迎中国的大国地位作为回报。但是随后一系列的挫折使得奥巴马确信，必须以更强硬的策略与中国进行对抗。与2008年奥巴马的就职演说一样，如今滔滔不绝的“嘴甜”依旧；只是现在的策略不再是欢迎，而是围堵。
That is far from how the administration presents it, however. It argues it is merely reasserting a “national interest” and traditional role in East Asia, a region neglected by an America distracted by terrorism and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Absent without leave, America helped foster an overblown perception in the region of America’s decline and China’s ascent. It is now putting that right. In Mr Paal’s phrase, America’s recent Asian diplomacy is “not aimed at China, but has implications for China”.
然而，这与美国行政分支的描述却相去甚远。美国行政分支认为，他们仅仅只是重申了美国在东亚的“国家利益”以及其所扮演的传统角色。由于在伊拉克与阿富汗的反恐战争中分身乏术，东亚这一地区被美国所忽视。缺席但并未离去，在东亚美国实际上帮助培养了这样一种过头的认识：即美国在衰落，中国在崛起。现在美国正在纠正自己对东亚的忽视。用包道格先生的话说，美国最近的亚洲外交“不是针对中国，而是暗示中国”。
A container has several sides
合围之势
That may be too nuanced a distinction for the Global Times’ leader-writers. But those implications are indeed worth pondering. China seems to have digested one already: that the swagger, bordering on arrogance, with which Chinese officials were throwing their weight around in the region and in the West in the depths of the financial crisis created unnecessary alarm. These days, courtesy is back in vogue.
对于中国《环球时报》的社论作者而言，这两者的差别可能太过细微。不过那些暗示的确值得中国深思。中国似乎已经领会了其中一点：趾高气昂而又态度傲慢的中国官员曾在东亚四处施压；在深陷金融危机的西方，中国又在发布不必要的警告。这些天来，中国又开始“韬光养晦”了。
Another implication is that rather than simply rail against America, China could do more to prevent its neighbours providing such fertile ground for the “seeds of distrust” it sows. That would demand greater clarity over China’s real strategic aims, and a willingness to discuss them in multilateral forums. On the South China Sea, for example, it is hard to know exactly what its claim is based on. Yet its ships sometimes treat the sea as a Chinese lake; its maps show a great lolling tongue of Chinese sovereignty stuck insolently out at the South-East Asian littoral states. No wonder those countries welcome American aircraft-carriers. The trouble is, of course, that if China were clearer about its aims, they might welcome them even more.
另一个暗示是，中国完全可以做更多的工作，去阻止自己的邻国为自己曾种下的“不可信任的种子”提供这样的沃土，而不是一味地责骂美国。这将要求中国更加明确自己真正的战略目标，同时愿意在多边论坛上去进行讨论。比如，在南中国海的问题上，很难确切知道中国所作声明的依据是什么（是指南中国海靠近中国的近海部分是中国的“核心利益”，还是整个南中国海都是中国的“核心利益”——此译注参考了杨恒均先生的博客文章《外争国权，内争人权》，杨先生对南海问题亦有非常独到的解读）。有时候中国的船只已经将这片海域当作自己的一个湖泊了；中国的地图上一个垂下的舌尖，显示着中国的主权傲慢地伸向东南亚的沿海国家。所以那些国家欢迎美国的航空母舰，也就不足为怪了。当然问题是，如果中国更加明晰了自己的目标，那些国家（出于对找准目标的中国的惧怕）可能会更厉害地倒向美国。
